


Transition

by Concolor



Category: DC Animated Universe, Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Drama, F/F, F/M, Heterosexual Sex, Horror, Insanity, Lesbian Sex, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-13 00:35:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 93,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Concolor/pseuds/Concolor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raven has vanished and the Titans aren't handling it well. But is she really in any danger? Changes are coming fast, and few things are what they seem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Doing So Well

**Author's Note:**

> I have no stake, financial or otherwise, in the Teen Titans. The characters depicted herein, apart from those which are incidental to this particular story, were created, sadly, by someone other than me. 
> 
> Raven, Jinx, Robin, et al., are NOT mine, are the sole property of DC Comics, Warner Brothers, and their assigns, and are only appearing in this story at the behest of my Muse, who seems to have developed a taste for energy drinks lately and will NOT leave me alone. 
> 
> Not that I'm complaining. She's cute.

_CHAPTER 1_

_Late August …_

_(from the daily log of Victor Stone)_

Want to hear a milestone? It's been four months, exactly, today. The last detectable traces of warp energy from the Event faded sixteen days ago, but I only admitted that to myself yesterday. It's just … it's really hard. You know? And I haven't given up, exactly. I haven't! The problem is that I don't know where to go from here.

Kori got back from Tamaran last night. She brought one of their scientists with her. He's supposed to be some kind of expert in Transition Events, but as far as anyone can tell they only happen once every few hundred years, so it's not like he'd have a huge sample size to study, is it? Anyway, he wants to go over the data with me. I guess it can't hurt.

I just miss her so much. She was like the little sister I never had. Yes, I realize I've said this before … several times … but that doesn't make it any less true. The pain hasn't really eased much. And I've probably watched the replay fifteen hundred times, so it's not like I could forget, is it?

Still no word from Gar. I'm afraid this really has pushed him off the deep end. Richard says not to worry, that he's more resilient than he looks, but I'm not convinced. It's been almost a month since he left, and it's like he dropped off the planet. That stupid note he pinned to Richard's door didn't help, either. Damn it. Nobody around to argue tofu-versus-meat. Damn it.

I just re-read what I wrote. Do I really sound that depressed? Screw it. I'm going to go get some breakfast and then talk to that scientist.

. . .

. . .

. . .

_(from the diary of Richard Grayson)_

Kori's back. Thank God. This has been the longest five weeks of my life. She has a scientist with her who is supposed to be some kind of Transition Event expert. I hope he can make some headway where Victor and the Justice League hit a wall. We really need Raven back. At least with Jinx and Gizmo gone we aren't nearly as busy. I still think that little rat bastard had something to do with the Event, never mind what Victor says.

Two days ago I got the rest of the data back from the Justice League about the attack on the H.I.V.E. headquarters. I finished running the correlation last night, and I'll have to agree with the Batman on this one. I think Gar's responsible. There are too many "coincidences" for him not to be involved, unless some vigilante out there has a tiger, a giant ape, and a spinosaurus under his total control. Let's just say that I can reject that hypothesis out of hand. In any event, Gar seems to have come unhinged.

I don't know how I'm going to break it to Victor – I've been the one reassuring HIM that Gar will be okay. Looks like maybe not. He never had the desire to kill before. He went out of his way to AVOID killing. But the level of savagery he showed when he took the H.I.V.E. apart was … appalling. I can't think of a better term. Half the remains couldn't even be identified.

With Kori here maybe we can get back on some kind of regular training schedule. Neither Terra nor Vic has had the heart for it, and I can't say much more for myself. I can't figure that girl out, though. She insists on patrolling every night, and has made the bulk of the Team's captures for the last two months. She isn't gentle, either. I've been keeping track. Commissioner Thomson wants to meet with me about it; he's been keeping track, too, it seems. He sent me another note yesterday. I should probably stop putting him off.

Aqualad has been making noises about going back to the Titans East. Guess I can't blame him. He really hasn't had much to do, and the other team stays a lot busier than we do. I suspect being away from Argent has something to do with it, too, and I sure DO understand THAT.

Time for breakfast. I'll have to talk with Vic today and tell him about Gar. Not looking forward to that conversation.

. . .

. . .

. . .

_(in a Tamaranian space cruiser in geosynchronous orbit with Titan's Tower – dialogue translated from Tamaranian)_

"Your Highness, I must protest."

"You may protest all you like. I will not change my mind. These are my friends, and I WILL help them."

"But they are not Tamaranian!"

"For which I thank X'hal!"

"This is not what I came with you to accomplish. You wanted me to look into the circumstances behind the Transition Event. I will do that. But I will not involve myself in the affairs of alien vigilante groups!"

"Raven is  _grohnnflokk_ : my soul-sister. Her well-being is my well-being. My fate is tied to hers. Helping her IS helping me!"

" _Grohnnflokk!_ Surely not!"

"Surely so."

"Has she sworn the Oath of Return?"

"She has."

"Then you and she …"

"Of course. It is part of the bond."

"But she is of THIS planet!"

"And of two other planes of existence beside. It is of no consequence."

"But no one not of Tamaran has ever …"

"She is a special case. Now, will you help her?"

"I … I … Your Highness, I … it seems I must."

"Good. I will inform the Titans."

. . .

. . .

. . .

_(somewhere over eastern Jump City)_

Narrowly missing a small flock of birds, a sleek spire of rock streaked toward the ground at over four hundred kilometers per hour. Terra had formed sockets for her feet and hands into the basalt, giving her excellent purchase on the obdurate stone. She'd pulled up a windscreen in front of her and altered its molecular structure, pulling some elements out and rearranging the others into a thin, transparent sheet of aluminum oxynitride, a substance both harder and much tougher than bullet-proof glass.

As she neared the street she altered the stone further, forming it into a skin-tight suit of rocky armor that supported her slim body in the sudden, nine-g deceleration she executed immediately before smacking into the ground in front of a heavy SUV. The vehicle, with three men inside who had robbed a jewelry store and were trying for a getaway, ran full-tilt into the stony figure that had appeared so suddenly.

Terra's form didn't move so much as a millimeter. The SUV's front bumper and grill folded around her; the front axle broke in half; the left wheel popped off and bounced down the street; the motor broke loose from its mounts and was forced from the engine compartment into the front seat; and all three men came flying through the remains of the windshield. A small duffle bag came with them, bursting on Terra's chest and spraying jewelry all over the pavement.

Huge gouts of earth popped up out of the street, forming into hands and catching the men before they got terminal road rash on top of their myriad cuts and bruises and broken bones. She instantly wrapped each of them in a tight layer of stone-like material that immobilized them and kept them from bleeding out. She was holding them in an almost negligent manner when the police cars came to a skidding halt nearby.

Ten minutes later, having passed the crooks off to the EMTs and rounded up all the jewelry for the cops, she was back in the sky, looking for her next target … and going through her mind was the same tired refrain that had been playing for four months.

_If only I had been faster. Just a little faster and I could have saved her. Just a little stronger and she'd still be here, and the others wouldn't be blaming me. Got to get better … faster … stronger …_

. . .

. . .

. . .

_(dusk, north of Riberalta, Bolivia, South America)_

The man paused, leaning against an immense tropical hardwood and panting as if there were no air left in the world. One hand pressed against his side to slow the flow of blood from a shallow gash. He was getting dizzy, and he suspected at least part of it was from blood loss. But he had to keep running, had to move, had to get away from the mad-eyed thing that stalked him …

Something long and smooth and monstrously strong slammed into his chest, trapping him against the tree and knocking the rest of the air out of his lungs. Despite his ardent desire to do so, he couldn't formulate a scream. More of the slick, scaly length twined around him, pinning his limbs, starving him of breath. Spots danced in his vision. He realized he had minutes, perhaps only seconds, to live.

Then the ungodly pressure lifted and he drew a tortured gasp. When a huge, flat, black-eyed, reptilian head came level with his own, he lost the will even to think. Then the thing spoke.

"Hello, Brother Blood. How …  _ **pleasant**_ to finally meet again. We have so much to talk about."

The words came out as if pulled from the bottommost pit of Hades. "… Who … What … are you …"

"Surely you remember your old … acquaintance. How could you forget? We crossed swords a number of times. I am hurt that you would forget such a dedicated nemesis as I."

Brother Blood was having more and more difficulty pulling his thoughts together, but one name did float up to the near reaches of his mind. "… Changeling?"

"Oh, very good! Now. Maybe you can get one more answer correct for me."

The man was willing to do anything the former Titan asked, as long as he would let him go. He said as much.

A dry, rasping spasm erupted from the hideous saurian jaws, and Brother Blood realized it was laughing. "No. I don't think so. Here are your choices: You tell me what I want to know and your death will be quick and clean. You don't, and you will experience pain you cannot imagine. You get one chance. I am not a patient man."

Brother Blood's mouth worked open a few times. "What … do you … want to know?"

"What happened to Raven?"

The captive's blood froze. Raven? He hadn't thought of her in months. "I … I don't know! Why would you think … I had anything to do … with that?"

"Oh, I'm afraid that's the wrong answer. No kewpie doll for you."

The steel-hard bands loosened suddenly, so suddenly that Brother Blood slumped to the ground. He gasped a few times and looked around in fear. What had the shape-shifter meant? Where had he gone?

There was a sudden buzzing in his ear, and he slapped at his head, but it was too late. In growing horror he felt something crawling down his ear canal, and in seconds the thing had chewed through his eardrum and was burrowing deeper into his head. He thrashed on the ground, slamming his head repeatedly with both hands, screaming in fear and pain and despair, for several minutes. Blood began leaking from his ear, his mouth, his nose; then finally, he simply stopped. His flaccid limbs dropped to the earth, his frozen eyes staring into the night, his slack jaw unable to form the scream he so desperately needed.

A minute later, something small and disgusting crawled out of his mouth, dropped to the ground, and quickly morphed into the form of Garfield Logan. Kneeling beside the fallen criminal mastermind, he regarded him coldly and said, "Door Number Two. Little trick I picked up recently. You won't like it much. I severed the nerves that control your voluntary muscles, and left everything else intact. You'll lie here until something comes along and decides you'll make a decent meal. In the meantime, you'll feel everything, every pain, every twinge."

He lifted Brother Blood's right hand and examined it, then proceeded methodically to break each of the fingers, repeating the exercise with the left hand. Then he stepped on each knee and pulled up on each foot until the joint broke. At no time did the man on the ground react in any way.

Changeling scanned the ground for a few moments until he found what he was looking for, bent, and scooped up a small beetle. This he placed on Brother Blood's face, waiting until the insect oriented itself, crept over to one of the man's open eyes, and settled in to feed.

Then Garfield Logan morphed into something large and leathery and very, very dangerous, and took to the skies.

. . .

. . .

. . .

_(in a pocket dimension not too far away)_

Raven shuddered again and again as her lover's tongue made its slow and careful way down her spine, around the curve of her ass and into her innermost parts. Panting heavily, she turned on her side, raised one leg high, reached down and grabbed the other girl's hair, pulling her face hard into her soaking wet slit. Her lover obliged happily, her tongue now concentrating on the tiny, stiff pink pearl that ached for her touch.

Jinx repositioned herself, grinning as she worked two fingers deep into her lover, curling them up to seek and find the small washboard area of her G-spot.

Raven's back arched, her head now hanging off the edge of the altar as she felt her orgasm building once more. "… oh shit … oh god … damn, Jinx, honey … oh … damn … oh, that's good … oh … Jinx … OH … HONEY … OHHHHH!" Her hips bucked into the pink-haired metahuman as the climax overtook her, her hot, sweet-salty juices drenching Jinx's smiling face.

Jinx wiped at her mouth and shook some of the moisture off. "What was that, Sweetie? Number fourteen? Fifteen?"

"… *pant* … wasn't … *pant* … counting … oh … damnation … feels so GOOD …"

"Then I guess my work here is done, huh?" She quickly sat up and scooted away. Shadowy black tendrils reached for her and pulled her back down to the altar.

"Oh, no you don't." Raven reached around behind her for something, then extended a slim hand, which held a long, ornate dagger. "You AREN'T done."

Jinx gave her lover a pretty pout. "I thought it was my turn."

"Cut it out. You're stalling."

Jinx gave a  _ **humph**_ and said, "Party pooper." But she took the dagger.

Raven leaned back on the smooth stone, draping her arms out to either side, a lascivious grin on her face. "Bring it, Babe."

Jinx reversed the blade expertly, raised it high, and plunged it hard into Raven's chest.

. . .

. . .

. . .

_(in Titans' Tower, the next day)_

Robin, Cyborg, Terra and Starfire all stared at their visitor with their jaws hanging open. "She wants WHAT?"

Dr. Fate, standing at the end of the long table, gave a slight nod of assent. "She wants to stay where she is. She does not WISH to return to Earth."

Starfire stood suddenly, slamming the table hard enough to crack it. "That can NOT be! Why would she not wish to return to her friends? What is keeping her away?" Robin noticed the crack, making an automatic note to himself to get another table. (They lost MORE conference tables that way!)

The enigmatic figure in the golden helm clasped his hands behind his back. "Much of that is hidden from me. Nevertheless it is true."

"Why didn't you tell us about this before now?" Cyborg asked.

"I did not know. I had only just recently learned of the Transition Event, having spent most of my time in meditation and study in Xanadu. It was only upon returning to Earth and seeing the changes wrought that I turned my arts in that direction." He was pacing now, seemingly agitated. "As you may not know, Raven and I have a connection."

The four Titans looked at each other, then back at Dr. Fate, and shook their heads. "What connection?"

"I studied for a time at the Temple of Azarath."

Four voices spoke in unison: "AZARATH?"

"Yes. She and I use many of the same spells and meditation techniques. You may think of it as sharing a channel on the airwaves. Each of us has a unique modulation, but we all work on the same frequency, and that is how I can know that she is content where she is. In my meditations I have traveled far on the astral planes, searching for her. But she is not there. She is elsewhere. Exactly where, I cannot say. Yet I can feel her, sometimes, and catch random emotions. She is … happy."

Starfire sat back down, the very picture of dejection. "Then how … how will friend Raven ever return to us?"

Terra, of the four, seemed the least upset over this news. Her head was bowed, her face in a thoughtful cast.  _If she's happy there, if she doesn't want to come back, if nothing bad is happening to her … then maybe I didn't fuck up as badly as I thought. Maybe … maybe I'm not … a bad person. Maybe it'll be all right._

Dr. Fate continued, "The other impression I have received – though I must say that this is a rather weak impression – is that she has some sort of job to do, something she must finish. But I have no other particulars, and what I DO have is hazy in the extreme. She is very, very far from here."

Robin leaned forward. "Is there any way we can help her?"

The golden visage turned his way, silent for long moments. "This I do not know. However, I will study upon it. I get the feeling that the answer to that question may be important."

Cyborg rested his head on a metal fist. "This is thirty-one flavors of fucked-up, man."

Terra punched him in the arm. "Word."


	2. Departure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still don't own the Teen Titans, nor will I ever. They are still appearing in this story WITHOUT the express consent of their creators. But then, they are a spirited bunch, especially Jinx, and are inclined to do that sort of thing on a regular basis. Talk to them if you have issues with that. Just leave me out of it.

_CHAPTER 2_

_Four months earlier …_

"What I don't get," observed Cyborg, dodging one of See-More's laser blasts, "is why you yokels insist on pulling heists in Jump City." He twisted, bringing his sonic cannon to bear on the skinny villain and firing in one seamless, rolling motion. The concussive blast lifted See-More off the ground and hurled him through a display case and into the stone wall behind him. He slid to the ground and didn't move again. "Because you _**always**_ get your asses handed to you."

Starfire's perfect form came zinging by, narrowly missing him before she put out a hand to catch a signpost, slingshotting around it and back the way she'd come. Cyborg got a quick glimpse of Mammoth, his arms raised to strike, before Star rammed him in the middle of his chest, knocking him back inside the bank building.

"I think I can answer that one for you, Vic."

Cyborg glanced around the other direction and spotted Robin. The team leader was trotting his way, dragging a _**sincerely**_ unconscious Kyd Wykkyd by his cloak. "Oo, good catch, there, Rob!"

"Almost didn't get him. Blasted teleporter. But he has to be solid _**some**_ of the time if he wants to strike, and frankly he isn't that good at hand-to-hand." He grinned. "Or, in this case, hand-to-bo staff." He dropped the villain and dusted off his hands. "It's because Jump City is a financial center. There are four times as many banks here as in any of the surrounding cities."

"Oh. Guess that helps explain it." He shrugged. "Where are the others?"

They both flinched as the pavement vibrated. Then Mammoth's huge bulk came flying out through the roof of the bank, making a beautiful, textbook arc before coming back to earth, where his head left a small impact crater in the road. After that he appeared not to have any interest in getting back up.

Cyborg held up three fingers. "That's three."

The limp form of a sadly battered Billy Numerous fell to the ground in front of them. "I count four," said Terra, in a deadpan imitation of Raven. She couldn't hold it for long, though, and followed up with a giggle.

Cyborg grinned up at the geomancer, her agile body balanced perfectly on a small boulder. "Okay, four, then. But where'd Gizmo and Jinx go?"

"They were headed for the bay." She pointed off to the west. "Raven and BB were chasing them."

"Then I shall go and help our friends!" Starfire's enthusiastic shout wafted down to them as she streaked off in that direction.

An amused chuckle welled up from the metal-man's chest. "Can't keep a good alien down."

"Hey, save some for me!" called Terra, speeding after Starfire's rapidly diminishing figure.

"Certainly not that alien," agreed Robin. "Come on, let's get these four trussed up for the police." He pulled out his communicator and got in touch with the Special Forces team that he knew by now had to be close. "Ah, Sergeant Grant! Good to hear from you. Yeah, we've got four candidates for your 'special' paddy wagon.

. . .

. . .

. . .

"Can't this thing go any faster?"

"Quit screamin' in my ear, snotbrain!"

Jinx looked back toward the city, her eyes dangerously narrowed. _Stupid fucking Raven and her stupid fucking pet flying monkey! Yeah, that's right, come on, just a little closer …_

She raised one hand and fired off an immense hex-bolt. It clipped Beast Boy's wing, and the pseudo-pterodactyl took a precipitous dive toward the water. Raven instantly veered off and followed him, tendrils of dark energy reaching down to ease his descent.

"Hah! Gotcha, you son of a bitch!" Jinx pumped one fist in the air and then grabbed the machine's handle to keep from falling. She snickered and said, "Hey! Come to think of it, I guess he can _**become**_ a bitch, so I'm right on both counts! How 'bout that, Giz?"

"Will you shut up and let me drive?"

"Such charm! Tell me, Giz, how is it possible that you're still single?"

"Fuck you very much."

Jinx decided not to respond to that. Baiting Gizmo was usually pretty fun, but she suspected he might just pull a barrel roll and dump her off this flying bicycle if she pushed too hard. _Maybe later._

. . .

. . .

. . .

Starfire was close enough to see Beast Boy become a casualty, and immediately changed her flight path to intercept. But by the time she got to the spot, he had already morphed into a dolphin, and Raven was hovering just above him. He was, however, still wounded, and blood leaked out into the water. The dark Titan caught Starfire's gaze and said, "Can you get him back to the Tower?"

The Tamaranian was troubled by the deep red glint in Raven's eyes, but she gamely answered, "I will aid him in getting to the room of medical assistance!"

"Good." She rose and took off, calling back over her shoulder, "I've got some bitch-hunting to do."

"Good luck in your hunting of the bitch!" She floated down to the water's surface and called, "Beast Boy! Please come up! Can you turn into something smaller, like a frog or – oh, I know! I know! A kitten! They are soft and furry and easily carried great distances!"

She ducked and let out a small _**eep!**_ as Terra streaked by overhead.

. . .

. . .

. . .

_What's his plan? Why is he headed out toward the open sea? This makes no sense._ Raven smelled a trap. Nevertheless, she put on a burst of speed to catch up to the fleeing criminals.

Up ahead, Gizmo was adjusting one of his control banks. "Hey, snot-rag, we're almost in range. Anybody back there?"

"Yeah, the Crow and the Dirtball. They'll be on our tail in, like, a minute, and I'm gettin' some _**major**_ bad vibes offa that girl."

"You zorched her bud. Whaddaya expect?"

"I expect you to go faster, that's …" Her voice died as her eyes got much, much bigger. "Giz, is that yours?"

"Holy hell …"

Ahead of them the sea was rising in a tall, narrow dome. The air all around it swirled, pulling spray off and creating a world of diamond-bright rainbows. Gizmo pulled a hard right and floored it, running north, parallel to the coast. "We'll hafta think of somethin' else. That damn witch musta pulled a fast one and screwed up my gate."

Raven saw them veer off, but was so focused on catching them she missed the oceanic anomaly going on beyond them. She altered course, closing the gap quickly. Darkness roiled under her cloak; two massive black wings spread out, and her speed increased. Had anyone been in a position to do so, he would have seen four glowing red points under her hood. When she was maybe fifteen meters above and behind them, she launched her missile of shadow.

The concentrated beam of psychic plasma hit the flycycle just behind Jinx's seat, severing the machine's engine neatly. Both passengers screamed as their forward momentum abruptly changed to a nosedive.

They needn't have worried. In a trice, each was securely fastened into an inky strait-jacket. With a thought, Raven stripped all of Gizmo's devices from him, along with most of his clothing and not a few small patches of skin. Jinx she encased fully, and then set her to spinning rapidly in random directions. Being blind and horribly disoriented would lessen the possibility of her getting off a hex blast, much less hitting a target.

Raven was just about to begin her return trip when one of her other senses sounded an alarm. She whirled around to look behind her and stopped, utterly becalmed at the sight.

The dome of ocean towered a good five or six hundred meters above her. Within a hundred meters of it the air glowed purple, as if the mother of all lightning bolts were about to let fly. Panic flooding her system, Raven shot away from the approaching mountain of doom with every erg of power she could muster.

It wasn't enough. Not even close.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Terra was quite a way back from the main action, giving her a good enough vantage point to see all of the slow-motion tragedy unfold. When the water started rising out of the sea she thought, as Jinx had, that it was Raven's doing, but when the prey and the predator both veered off and the dome kept rising, she got a very unpleasant feeling that they were all about to be, as it were, out of their depth. Urging her rock forward with all due haste, she aimed for the tiny figures in the distance.

She saw Raven strike. She saw her catch the two criminals. And then she saw her turn, spot the looming menace, and high-tail it away. But the weird anomaly moved after her, closing the gap effortlessly. The purple nimbus enveloped them, the monstrous thing stopped, seemed to shudder through its length … and then it collapsed. Along with the uncountable millions of tons of water, there was a shrieking explosion of psychic energy, a corona of power that raced out from the falling dome like a shockwave. It hit Terra long before the mini-tsunami got there, nearly knocking her out of the sky. With a huge effort she righted herself, got her bearings, and tore off toward the last place she'd seen her best friend.

. . .

. . .

. . .

Starfire's communicator beeped. "Hey, Star, you get anything yet?"

The warrior princess studied the scanner she carried, but it told her nothing that it hadn't for the last two hours. "No, Robin. The device of scan still shows no sign of dear Raven."

"… Thanks, Star. Please … continue the pattern."

"I will do this, Robin. We will find our dear friend. We will."

"Yes, Star, you're right. Robin out."

"Hey, Rob," called Cyborg, "I got the Watchtower on the line."

"Good. What'd they get?"

"Ah … not much. Not yet, anyway. Their sensors picked up a general psychic disturbance, and one hell of a strong warp anomaly. Batman's studying it, but he's not finished, and you know how he is."

"Yeah. I do. He'll tell us when he's good and ready." His communicator came to life. "Robin, Robin! The device of scan says a human is below! I am going down to see."

Robin's heart rate jumped drastically. "Down in the water? Or floating on top?"

"… Ah … floating. … Oh. … Oh, dear." The distress in her voice was stiff and heavy with sorrow.

"What? What'd you find?"

"It is … the one called Gizmo. It is, um, most of him. I think."

Robin fell into a seat. "… He's dead?"

"Yes, Robin. The one called Gizmo is most truly very dead. Do you want me to bring him back?"

"Ah … yeah. Yeah, bring him in. Maybe … maybe his … remains can tell us something."

"I will do this for you, my friend. But now this makes me worry so very much more for dear Raven!"

"Yes, Star. I know." He rested his forehead on a fist. "I know."


	3. Well Look Who's Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose it must be said again that I don’t own anything – anything at ALL – to do with the Teen Titans. That’s a crying shame, but true nonetheless.

_CHAPTER 3_

_The Transition, from Jinx’s point of view …_

I thought that maybe, just this once, just for a lark, we might be able to pull off a job with something that could be twisted around and pulled into shape until it at least **_felt_** like success.  You know?  I mean, what are the odds?  Bands of thieves commit robberies all over the country every day.  Every stinkin’ day, damn it!  Ordinary thugs and con men; regular Joes.  And they get away with it.  Not all of them, I know, but some of them do.  Every day.  Every rotten, god-forsaken, worthless, lonely, useless, boring, endless – did I mention rotten? – day.

But not us.  Oh, no.  We’ve pissed off the wrong demigod somewhere.  Either that, or our hideout was built over an old Indian burial ground.  Or a team of voodoo Gypsy Thuggee shamans thought we spit in their collective beer, and have been loading us down with bad luck ever since.

No fair.  That’s my job.

It’s funny the thoughts that’ll run through your head when you’re skimming along six meters off the tops of the waves at roughly two hundred klicks with an angry half-demon gaining on you every second.  But I’m sure you know what THAT’S like, right?

No?  You don’t?

Oh.  Well, skip it.

I turned and glanced back.  It looked like maybe the Redhead was carting Beast Bum back toward land, but I couldn’t really spare any attention for that.  I wasn’t worried about Terra either; she was too far away to count, and even close up there wasn’t much she could do to us out here on the water.  But Raven looked like she was getting way, _way_ , WAY too close for my comfort.  You know, like in the same time zone?  Ever since our brains got cross-wise that time we fought together against Brother Blood (yeah, can you even picture that?) I’ve been able to pick up on her emotional state if she’s anywhere close.  No fun, let me tell you.  And right now she was **_all about_** dishing out some gnarly death, and _distance_ sounded like the best idea in the world to me.

I really hate that bitch.

Gizmo sang out, “Hey, snot-rag, we’re almost in range.  Anybody back there?”

“Yeah,” I told him, “the Crow and the Dirtball.  They’ll be on our tail in, like, a minute, and I’m gettin’ some **_major_ ** bad vibes offa that girl.”

“You zorched her bud.  Whaddaya expect?”

“I expect you to go faster, that’s …” Oh, hell.  That’s when I saw it.  Hell-on-a-crutch!  Looked like a cross between the grand-daddy of all jellyfish and something out of God’s bubble-pipe.  It was coming out of the water maybe four or five hundred meters away, dead in our path, and I didn’t like it even a _little_ bit.

I knew the answer already, but asked the question anyway.  “Giz, is that yours?”

He spotted it right then, cursed, and yanked the flycycle over to the right.  “We’ll hafta think of somethin’ else.  That damn witch musta pulled a fast one and screwed up my gate.”

_Well, hell._

And here’s my next Stupid Question: “So what do we do now?”

“Run like a bat outta hell and hope that snot-muncher is too slow to catch us.”

Okay, **_that’s_ ** a bad plan.  I knew it because I could still feel her behind us, and I knew we weren’t going to be outrunning her any time today or in the foreseeable future.  She was too pissed off, and the more …  _exercised_ she gets, the worse it is for everybody else.  I started channeling my energy and the pink started glowing around my hands.  I’d probably only have one shot at this, and firing  at a moving target, from a moving target, is hard enough when you **_aren’t_** completely fucking **_out_** of options.  I sneaked a glance backwards …

… and saw the glowing black blob just before it hit.

You remember when I said that being in a – well, let’s call it a tense situation – can make some strange crap run through your head?  I saw that Big Ol’ Ball O’ Death bearing down on us like the Final Judgment, and what it immediately brought to mind was this guy I met a couple years ago.  He was just getting out of the Army – or was it the Marines? – eh, whatever.  He had this honkin’ _huge_ pistol, a fifty-caliber Desert Eagle, and he’d had it customized, kept referring to it as his ‘camera’.  I asked about that, and he showed me.  Around the end of the muzzle there was this engraved:  “ _Smile.  Wait for flash._ ”  I thought it was funny as hell at the time.

Not so much just now.  I didn’t have to wait very long for the flash, either.

Well, being quickly and totally deprived of our means of propulsion, we did what anyone else would do in that situation.  We fell like rocks.

Raven was having none of _that_ , though.  She caught us and used that black crap to squeeze us ‘til we both farted.  Then she wrapped me completely.  I’m talking mummy city.  I was trying to bring up a hex bolt, but then I got a crash-course introduction to the Tilt-A-Whirl From Hell.  For the next sixteen-and-a-half months (probably not more than a few seconds, but you get the idea) the concept of ‘up’ became not even a passing acquaintance, and it was all I could do to keep breakfast from clawing its way back out of my throat.

Then it all let go.  Just like that.  I didn’t know what she was up to; hell, I was so messed up I couldn’t even tell I was falling.  But one thing I did see, and that one thing impressed itself on my brain with enough enthusiasm that everything else just sort of faded away:  there was a godawful ginormous MOUNTAIN of water trying to eat us.  Screw that.  Not trying.  Succeeding.

Only thing is, it didn’t feel like water.  I’d love to be able to tell you what it DID feel like, but my command of English ain’t that good.  It was completely indescribable.  Therefore, I will describe it.

There was purple.  Only it TASTED purple.  There was heat.  Except it SOUNDED like heat.  There was incredible noise.  But it SMELLED like noise.

You swingin’ with it?  Get where I’m coming from?  What does _noise_ smell like?  Yeah.  That’s what I thought.

The pressure was real, though.  I was getting squeezed.  Like, pushed through a hole, only the hole was long and narrow, and getting narrower all the time, and the force behind me kept building and pushing me farther into this increasingly smaller space.  It felt like it should have hurt.  If what was happening bore any resemblance to reality at all, I’d be dead.  But it _didn’t_ hurt, and I _wasn’t_ dead.  So, I figured, it must be a dream.

Weirdest damn dream I ever had.

I got pulled out into a line, then the line got pulled out thinner, then _that_ got pulled down to where I was nothing but a long row of molecules, and then I sort of lost track of things.  I guess your brain will do that when this sort of thing happens.

 

####

 

 

And so now I’m here, wherever ‘here’ is.  I don’t recognize it, but I’d be willing to bet good money it’s a different planet.  The gravity seems a little light, and there are … well, weird smells.  Not bad, just … odd.  Like nothing I ever smelled before.

First thing I noticed when I woke up was the grass.  Really fine, really soft, and really, _really_ green.  It tickled my nose, so I sat up before I sneezed.

Second thing I noticed?  Whoever brought me here didn’t think I had any use for clothes.  Yep.  Naked as the day I was born.  Stinkin’ pervert.

Third thing I noticed – and you gotta understand that all this happened just _bam-bam-bam_ , nearly all at the same time – was that I was _totally freaking **starving!**   _And that’s when I noticed the fourth thing, which was this really cool tree with the most amazing fruit _**all over**_ it.  And it was right there.  I mean, _hanging-over-my-head_ right there.  I ate ‘til they were gone, and while I was eating I noticed the sound of water running.  Sure enough, just barely out of sight there was this little stream thingy.  It sprang up out of a big rock and trundled off into the woods.

Yes, woods.  I was in a glade or – Meadow?  Clearing? – little open place, and those fruit trees grew all around it.  But past them the trees started for real, and some of them were huge.  Anyway, the stream sort of meandered off into the trees and vanished.

I’m not much of one to go barefoot.  Never have liked it.  My feet are kind of, I don’t know, tender or something.  Yeah, I know, big bad Jinx has delicate tootsies.  Why the hell do you think I wear those awful thick-soled shoes?  If I’m gonna kick some hero’s face in, I’ll need protection, right?  I’m nobody’s idea of bulletproof, and neither are my feet.

Anyway, as I was saying, I went over to the stream to get a drink.  It was good.  I’d heard of ‘sweet’ water before, but living in the city, I never actually had any.  I drank a lot of it.  Then I thought about how to get my bearings, looked up to find the sun, and got a shock.  It was light out … sort of.  I could see well enough.  There was plenty of ambient light, and I did cast a shadow, and there wasn’t any cloud cover to speak of.  But the light seemed to be coming from a point, not a sun.  Or, if it **_was_** a sun, it was either so small or so far away you couldn’t see a disk.  I shook my head.  Crazy place.

Just to see if I could, I powered up a hex bolt and split a big rock apart with it.  Okay, fair enough.  Still armed and dangerous.  That’s good to know.  But I don’t like prancing around naked, which was just too bad because I couldn’t see anything around that I could even fashion clothes out of.  All the leaves I could see were small and narrow and unless I could figure out how to _glue_ them on …

Oh, well.

I took a deep breath and bellowed, **_“Anybody home?”_**

Nothin’.  Not even crickets.  That’s when it struck me:  this place was too quiet.  Even in the most desolate places on Earth, you have noise.  Here, there was no birdsong, no humming bugs (no damn mosquitoes, thank the deific being of your choice) no frogs singing.  Hell, no wind.  It was still as a tomb.  I mashed the hair back down where it had sprung up on the back of my neck.  I don’t like creepy, not when I’m the one being creeped out.

Are you one of those people who needs to be doing something?  That’s me.  I don’t do ‘nothing’ very well.  Meditation’s a crock, far as I’m concerned.  Get up and _work_ your problems out, don’t waste your time staring at your belly button, that’s what I say.  So, you probably figured out that I’d start exploring sooner or later.

It was sooner.  I thought following the stream would be my best bet, so off I went.  The going was easy.  As long as I stayed on the grass, it felt like walking on a good Persian rug.  I walked for a few minutes through the woods, glad of the more-or-less clear space right beside the stream, and came upon another of those little clearing places, and I stopped dead in my tracks.

This place was a little larger than the one I’d awakened in, and notably free of large rocks.  The stream ambled along down one side and disappeared in the woods.  The grass was even, short, and neat, just like it was everywhere in this place.  The fruit trees here held a different kind, a deep red where mine had been a yellowy green.  But what was different about this glade, what made it so very, very special for me, was that Raven was lying right smack in the middle of it, sound asleep.

A pink glow quickly surrounded my hands …


	4. Bad Answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Circumstances unchanged. I still don't own the Teen Titans. I have nothing to do with their care & feeding. And, strangely enough, they seem to get along just fine without me. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 4_

_In the Watchtower …_

Cyborg was incredulous. "A 'Transition Event'? You mean they even have a  _name_  for this shit?"

Batman gave him a look that made him hunch just a little and avert his eyes. The Justice Leaguer waited a moment, cleared his throat, and said, "They do. Doctor Baker has been studying this phenomenon for almost a decade, and … well, why don't I let him explain?"

They all turned to look at the scientist sitting at the end of the table. He wasn't paying any attention to them, being instead thoroughly occupied with his personal data device.

"Doctor."

The elder researcher was mumbling to himself in his native tongue.

"Doctor Baker?"

He looked up, squinting at them, his face screwed into a knot so tight he looked like he was trying to swallow a basket of unripe lemons. _"What?"_

"Would you kindly explain to the Titans about the Transition Events?"

"Oh. Yes." He sat up, placed his unit on the table and crossed his arms. "They have been occurring throughout this half of our galaxy for most of recorded history." Giving the Titans a baleful glare, he emphasized, " _Galactic_  recorded history, which goes back over a  _million years_  further than ours."

Robin gaped at him. Terra said, "A million  _years?_  But … but what is it?"

"We do not know. That is, we do not know its origins. We know quite a bit about how it works, and the effects it leaves in its wake. For instance, after a Transition Event the general level of hostility on the planet in question drops dramatically for a time. There is a psychic residue of calm that can be measured." He waved at his device. "I am doing so now."

The Titans looked at each other. Robin asked, "So are you saying that crime levels should decrease?"

"They should, quite significantly."

"For how long?"

"Ah, that seems to be a variable. It depends on the species." He gave Starfire a speculative look. "For instance, only one Transition Event ever occurred on Tamaran, and that was some 47,000 years ago. It is more a matter of legend to them now than scientific endeavor, but the resulting worldwide peace lasted nearly three years."

Starfire's eyes went round (rounder than usual) and she said, "Then the  _Grehfnog_   _K'Flan'r_  is not simply a story?"

"No, Your Highness, it is not." He leaned over and tapped on his device briefly. "The Transition Event occurs somewhere an average of every 112.8 Earth years, with a standard deviation of 11.7 years, ignoring the obvious fliers. There are quite a few long gaps in the record, which would only indicate to me that the Event happened on a planet that was not equipped to trace it with any accuracy … or on one which hasn't been discovered yet." He bumped a fist on the table. "Just think of it. This has been happening for  _at least_  the last nine hundred thousand years. Earth civilization wasn't even a sparkle in some proto-hominid's eye!"

Everyone chewed on that for a few moments. Terra asked, "When was the last one?"

"It struck the planet Trimea 128 years ago."

"How'd they cope?"

He snorted. "The Trimeans were a relatively peaceful folk to begin with. Their planet was not militarily strategic, and they are not, um, built for combat. They are amphibious, feed by straining water through a membrane, and have no bony structures. The disappearance of their  _Kh'horon_  should have upset them greatly, but instead they …"

"Excuse me, sir?" said Robin. "Their what?"

"Ah … sort of a High Priest/Philosopher King. The sometime leader of the religious aspects of their lives. He was taken in the Event."

"I'm sorry? 'Taken'?"

"Oh. Right. Yes, the other significant commonality with a Transition Event is the disappearance of someone of philosophical importance."

Beast Boy half rose from his chair. "Waitaminnit! Are you sayin' Raven's gone because she's some kinda super-philosopher? How screwed up is that?"

"It may not be her. Did you not also say that there was another missing person?"

Cyborg, Robin, and Terra all snorted, and Beast Boy gave a short bark of laughter. "You mean Jinx? She might be a lotta things, but 'philosopher' ain't one of 'em."

"Besides," added Robin, "just because she's missing doesn't mean … ah, that is … oh. Huh." He slouched back in his chair, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "So. I wonder if anyone else  _besides_  Raven and Jinx went missing."

"It is doubtful," responded the scientist. "The records indicate that in the overwhelming majority of cases, only one being disappears. Even when there are concomitant disappearances, as in the case of Trimea, it is usually found that other circumstances were the cause." He held up a finger. "Trimea. Yes, let me finish. They are a race of peaceful artisans, by and large, and the psychic residue from the Event has persisted. Even today, over a century later, they have no crime to speak of. However – and this is also significant – one of the side effects of the Event is an increase in insanity. It is not a large increase, but it is predictable and statistically significant. Prior to the Event, the incidence of insanity in their culture was perhaps a tenth of one percent of the general population. It rose steeply to almost two percent, and has fallen gradually since then to about four tenths of a percent, largely through attrition. They are not a particularly long-lived race."

"So you're also saying," put in Cyborg, "that insanity on Earth should increase."

"Quite correct. This could be a major problem, given the rather high levels of mental instability our race evinces already."

"Hey!" objected Terra.

He turned back to his data device. "But I digress. The Trimeans, rather than falling into disarray when their leader vanished in such a spectacular manner, took it as a sign from their gods that his teachings were true and pure. It converted the entire planet to a single sect, and I must say it has been successful from a cultural standpoint. They are happy and content as a race."

"But us humans, not so much, huh?" asked Beast Boy.

"As you say, 'not so much'. We were very fortunate, though, in the choice of location for the Event. Had it occurred on land, the temblors would have been catastrophic."

"Well," said Robin, "as it was, the damage was pretty severe right along the coast there. All of Jump City's docks are out of commission, and the whole downtown area got flooded."

"Indeed, but it could have been so much worse. In the Transition Event on Ghayor about six hundred years ago, the locus was in a suburb near the capitol city of the second-largest nation. It happened more slowly than yours, slowly enough that the residents were able to evacuate, but the loss of property was almost total. Where there had been a prosperous city, they were left with a smoldering sinkhole."

None of the Titans had anything to say about that.

Batman stood. "Thank you, Doctor Baker."

The scientist nodded and went back to his work.

Turning to the assembled Titans, Batman continued, "So now you understand what we're facing here. As I'm sure you all know, Earth has many enemies. If they were to learn that we are destined to be more …  _ **placid**_  in the coming years, accompanied by an increase in insanity in a population that is already famous in this arm of the galaxy for being wrapped none too tightly … well, you can see how that might not be where we want to go."

Cyborg nodded. "I'll say."

"That's why this information must not leave here. The Event is being explained to the public as a freak tectonic slip, and the tsunami as a natural, regular tsunami. To the best of my knowledge, no civilian has any record of when the actual warp phenomenon took place, and …"

"Sir?" Terra had her hand up.

"Yes?"

"What's a warp?"

"… You have an  _alien_  on your  _team_ , and you're sitting there telling me you  _don't know anything_  about warp drives?"

She colored and dropped her eyes. "Well … yeah, I do. I know about space ships and stuff." She looked back up, meeting his gaze bravely. "But there wasn't any space ship when Raven disappeared!"

"In the first place, how do you know? It may have been in orbit for all you know."

"… Uhhhh …"

"And in the second, a space ship is not  _required_  for the production of warp energy. That's how some beings teleport. And trust me, the Transition Event generated the mother of all warp fields right out there past Jump City's harbor. Little pieces of it are still there."

Robin and Cyborg said, in chorus, "Can you track it?"

Batman glanced between them, a smirk threatening to break out on his face. "That's one of the things Doctor Baker is trying to do. But it is a ticklish job. He's still trying to determine direction, and given that the solar system is moving around the galactic core at 220 kilometers per second, and the Earth is revolving around Sol at about 30 kilometers per second, he has a deal of math to work through. And that's just for starters."

"Oh," said Robin.

"Well, crap," said Cyborg.

Beast Boy asked, "Could it have come from Earth?"

"Certainly. But we don't  _know_  yet. There is a great amount of work ahead of us. You may feel free to conduct your own investigations as well, as long as you keep the real reasons secret."

"Don't worry," said Robin. "I don't want somebody like, oh, The Citadel coming to call just because they think we'll be an easy target."

Batman nodded. "Neither do we."

 


	5. Unexpected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I don't own the Teen Titans. Frankly, no one does. They own themselves. Their situation is somewhat similar to that of the Skin Horse in the children's tale The Velveteen Rabbit. The Titans, you see, are Real. And, when one is Real, one can never really be 'owned' anymore. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 5_

_Elsewhere … Jinx's point of view …_

I let the hex energy fill my fists. This would do it. This would clean up a loose end that had desperately needed some serious bleach for a few years now.

According to H.I.V.E. records, Raven (whose real name was supposed to be Rachel … Something – I think) would currently be nineteen. My age. And she'd been a thorn in my side since my earliest days of running missions. I was barely fifteen. Fifteen! Believe it! Not even legal to drive, and I was out there kickin' ass and takin' names. At least I was until The Bimbo of the Purple Hood started showing up with the Titans. Somehow or other we usually managed to get paired off, and she usually managed to Really Make My Day, if you know what I mean. Oh, sure, I'd get away; I'd say somewhere around four times out of five I'd give her the slip. But that's not the point. We usually left empty-handed. And, once or twice a year, maybe seven or eight times over the last four, she actually collared me and handed me over to the cops. Me! The original Bad Luck Charm!

God, how I detested seeing that costume. Turned me off royal blue, it did.

And now … here she is. Whoever brought us here made it a package deal. Which, come to think of it, means that Gizmo ought to be around here somewhere, too.  _ **That**_  was a cheery thought. I sure as HELL didn't want to see HIM naked! And I figured he would be, since I was and Raven was …

Amazingly, that just registered. Raven is lying there without a stitch on. She was on her left side, facing me, with her left arm under her head for a pillow, her right arm trailing down the parabolic length of her torso so her hand could rest on her hip, and her right leg pulled up a little ways toward her chest.

Her  _ample_  chest. Damn.

I mean it. Damn, Honey, how come you been hiding all that sweetness under a  _cape_  all this time?

I took a few steps closer. She looked so … vulnerable.

_Yes, you moron, she's_ _**vulnerable!** _ _Take her out!_

_Right! Of course. You're right. Should do that right now. She's asleep, so she won't put up any kind of defense. One good bolt should blast her to pieces …_

…  _except …_

…  _I mean,_ _ **look**_ _at her!_

_I am looking at her! She's the enemy! You think you'll have any peace here with her around? Blast her!_ _**Blast her!** _

_Yeah, okay._

_What are you_ _**waiting** _ _for?_

Raven gave a small sigh; then her eyes opened slowly.

_Uh … that?_

####

…  _Raven's point of view …_

I'm starting to remember.

I was running away from that awful mountain of water. Yes.  _That's_  what I was doing. But it caught me.

Correction. It caught  _us_. I still had Jinx and Gizmo with me.

Then the details got a little hazy. Someone was trying to talk to me. Someone familiar …

… someone I'd met before, in my dreams.

Yes. Now I remember. The dreams. So strange. Always similar. Never exactly the same. We would meet, and the day would be fine, the sun bright, the sky an achingly clear cerulean bowl, the breeze light. I would notice that neither of us had any clothing, but it never seemed to matter. Nor did I ever see her face, but that, too, was of no import. We would walk, she and I, and she would tell me things, the most marvelous bits of wisdom that always seemed so strikingly obvious at the time, but that I had never pieced together before, and never was able to recall after waking.

It had bothered me. I wanted to know! I took a canvass of my Selves, but no one had noticed anything out of the ordinary. Wisdom, certainly, had seemed more unusually astute recently, but I'd not made the connection.

I increased the time I spent in meditation, even to the point that Robin commented on it. I didn't want to unduly alarm him, especially since I had no idea where my unease was coming from, so I made excuses. But the dreams persisted, as did my lack of success in understanding them. Why, then, are they coming back to me now? Why does she feel so close?

The sun is warm, the grass soft. The air is fresh and cool.

I feel good. Content. At peace. I haven't felt this way in … in …

It strikes me that it might be more trouble than it would be worth to finish that thought. So I don't.

Usually I have to stretch when I wake, but my body is so  _very_  comfortable I don't feel the need even to move. I take a long, slow breath, blissfully aware of my skin and the luxurious feel of the greensward under me. And then I open my eyes.

Jinx is standing there. This is a most amazing thing!

"Why, hello, Jinx! How did  _you_  get into my dream?"

####

…  _aaaaand we're back to Third Person Omniscient …_

Jinx didn't say anything right away. To point out that Raven's first utterance was out of character in both style and content would belabor the point badly. The dark Titan's monotone was gone, replaced by a lilting contralto that pulled the shivers back up on Jinx's arms. "I … uh … you, um … you  _are_  Raven, right?"

Raven sent the other girl a sleepy, half-lidded smile (thus  _further_ creeping her out) and slowly sat up, then leaned back on her hands and yawned, causing Jinx to blink several times at the sight. Her skin was a light gray with a very faint bluish cast, her areolas tinged a dark gray. What little pubic hair Jinx could see matched the dark purple on her head. "Yes I am, but please call me Rachel." That smile slipped into place again. "You can't be Jinx, though."

"… I can't? Why not?"

Raven's eyes sparkled in wonder, the purple orbs seeming to possess some kind of inner fire. It was quite something to see, and the pink-haired girl found herself captivated. "That is an excellent question! Why  _can't_  you be Jinx?" Fluid grace fairly dripped off her as she rose to her feet. She sauntered over toward the other girl, her motions as smooth as oil down a windowpane. "You certainly  _look_  like Jinx." Her head tilted to the side and a slim hand stretched out, stroking down through Jinx's hair to caress her cheek softly. The pink eyes widened considerably. "And you feel real," Raven continued. "Not like the dream at all."

Jinx backed away, releasing a breath she just then noticed she'd been holding. Raven studied her, and asked, "How did you come to be here with me?"

"You tell me! The last I remember, you were spinning my guts loose in the dark, and the next thing I see is about a billion tons of purple water bearing down on us. Then I woke up here."

A thoughtful expression captured the dark girl's face. "Yes. I recall that. I did not understand the water then." She looked up, held Jinx's gaze. "I should probably explain it to you."

"Oh, golly- _gosh!_  That'd be nice!" She didn't try very hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

"After I speak with her and learn the answer, I will find you and tell you." She stepped forward, took Jinx into a gentle embrace, and kissed her lightly on the cheek, whispering, "I'm sorry for handling you so roughly. I will try to make it up to you." Then she stepped back and rose into the air, gliding away over the treetops. In just a few moments she was gone.

Jinx watched her until she was out of sight, sat down on the soft grass, shook her head several times, and said, "Wait. Speak with  _ **who?**_ "

####

It took Jinx quite some time to make her way out of the forest, but at length she came to the beginnings of a range of mountains.

Raven didn't come back. Jinx waited for a few hours, trying the local fruit (different, spicier, yet just as delicious) and poking around under the trees and in the stream, but the novelty quickly wore off. She finally decided that there had to be more than just this obviously artificial park-like area, so, nice as it was, she left it behind to set out on a long 'explore'.

That was her intention, at least. What  _actually_  happened was that she followed the little brook through four dozen variations on the theme. She'd had no idea that something as simple as tree-grown fruit could come in such a bewildering array of flavors, colors, textures, and shapes. Every time she saw a new one she'd try it, and after a while she began to notice something odd: she wasn't getting full. She started keeping count and when she got to the fortieth piece of fruit, she gave up.

Something  _ **else**_  seriously screwy about this place.

What she  _really_  wanted was to walk into one of those clearings and find a hamburger joint, but apparently whoever ran this place (maybe the mysterious 'she' that Rav- um,  _Rachel_  referred to) was a vegan. That would be just her luck. Stranded on a weird planet with no meat. But then a thought occurred to her and she had to chuckle.  _It's a good thing Stone didn't end up here. He'd die for sure._

Locating a likely outcrop of rock, she started climbing. Fifteen minutes later she was perched about halfway up the biggest tree she could find on this 'mesa' sort of thing, and was peering back the way she'd come. The horizon was a long, long way off. There was no haze or pollen or pollution or anything to mar the view, and it was a truly amazing sight. She could just make out what looked like a sea or big lake or something off to the …

_Okay, which way is north?_

That stopped her cold, and she thought furiously for a minute.  _Right. When I got here, the sun … light? …_ _whatever_ _was right overhead. That was hours and hours ago, and it's_ _still_ _right overhead. Does this place not_ _rotate_ _? How screwy is_ _that_ _? They don't have night here?_

She ran a hand over the surface of the limb where she sat. It felt like finely-tanned leather, warm and smooth, just like all the other trees she'd touched.  _It's almost as if this place were …_ _designed_ _for us. For humans, that is. But no other animals? Nobody to talk to but Raven, if she ever comes back? This could get really, really boring._

Turning her gaze back to the view, she looked in vain for some sign of ambulatory life. But everything was still.  _Incredibly_  still. She licked a finger and held it up, waited for a moment, then dropped her hand in disgust. Not even a prayer of a breeze.

After climbing back down, she wandered over to the stream and got another drink. It was just as cold and sweet here as it was where it bubbled out of the rock. She stared for a while into its clear depths; it was no deeper than her arm was long, the bottom covered in a neat layer of round, brown pebbles. Sighing, she sat back, crossed her legs, and looked up at the sky, absently reaching around to scratch at a scar on the back of her left arm. She froze.

The scar in question had resulted from one of their many battles with the Titans. Someone – Terra or Raven, most likely – had pulled the roof down on top of them, and a sharp piece of stone laid her skin open in a tear long enough that she couldn't cover it with one hand. They got away, but medical attention had been a while in coming, and it got infected. The resulting scar wasn't pretty, and it had a tendency to get thick, itch, and flake off. She didn't pay it any attention most of the time because it was out of sight. But scratching it was a habit now.

The scar was gone. She felt around for it gingerly, probing the entire area, but all she felt was smooth, unblemished skin. She pulled the arm up and craned her neck around: nothing. No line, no discoloration, no trace.

 _Well. What about that._  She stood, trembling.  _Is this even_ _my_ _body? Did my … mind get put into … something else?_

She pinched the skin on her wrist. It hurt, about like she would expect. She looked around for a stick or something that would be sharp enough to cut, but was shortly frustrated. Then she ran back over to the rocky outcropping and hunted for a sharp chip. Eventually she found a likely piece of stone and used it to scrape her forearm. A thin line of blood welled up, and she heaved a sigh of relief.

 _Okay, then. I feel like me. I bleed like me. Maybe I still am me._  Concentrating, she tapped into the hex energy that floated around inside her constantly. A ball of it appeared in one palm, and she smiled, letting it fade.  _I still have my power. I guess it's all good._  Then her hand strayed to the spot where the scar used to be.  _But what the hell is that all about?_

It occurred to her that she'd been awake for a long time, which probably explained why her eyes were feeling scratchy. Deciding that this glade was probably as good a place as any, she lay down on the soft grass and stilled herself. She was asleep in less than a minute.


	6. Fractures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (If you must know the unvarnished truth, the Titans and I are not even passing acquaintances, much less business partners. That privilege goes to someone else … damn the luck. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 6_

_Earth … one month after the Transition Event …_

It was late. Cyborg walked heavily down the hall, headed toward the kitchen for an 'Oh-dark-Something' snack, when he passed Terra's room and paused. His audio receptors meant his standard-state hearing was roughly equivalent to that of a young, well-trained dog. If he wanted to, he could 'kick it up a notch' to the point that echolocation was a snap. So the sounds of his teammate's sobs came to him quite clearly. He leaned his forehead against the wall in frustration.

_Why does she do this to herself? It wasn't her fault, it wasn't her doing, and there was_ _no way_ _on God's green earth that she could have helped. If she'd been there with Raven, she'd have been taken, too. Or, worse, dead like Gizmo._

Victor Stone had been through this logical progression with the youngest Titan at least a dozen times, but although she nodded at all the right places and gave all the right answers, somehow it never seemed to take. She had assumed the burden of 'scapegoat' and would not put it down for anyone. He debated with himself for several moments, and finally knocked on the door.

The crying stopped instantly. A few seconds later, from just the other side of the door, he heard, "Who is it?"

"It's me. You wanna talk?"

It took her so long to respond he thought she wasn't going to let him in, but finally the handle clicked and it swung open. She was walking back toward her collection of bean bags that served her as bed, couch, and desk. "Come in if you want."

He did, and pushed the door closed. "Sorry, Terra. I was going after a few wings and … I heard you."

She rubbed her nose with the back of her hand and sniffed.

Cyborg walked over and found himself a piece of floor. "I guess I don't have to wonder what you're upset about."

She shrugged listlessly.

_Why me, God?_  "You know we love you, right?"

When she looked up at him, her gaze just hollowed out his chest. Terra has eyes of an amazing, vibrant blue, and when she is happy they practically glow. Now, however, they were tired and puffy and red-rimmed from crying. The pupils were tiny, even in the low light of her room. She coughed and asked, "What do you mean?"

" _You_  are  _family_. You're my friend, and I love you, and I know the others feel the same way. Terra, I couldn't do anything to stop what happened. Neither could Star or Rob or Gar. From the studies I've been doing on that warp anomaly, the …"

"He won't talk to me."

"… 'scuse me?"

"Gar. He won't talk to me. He thinks it's my fault."

"… And you know this because … he won't talk to you?" He chuckled dryly. "Terra, Hon, if  _that's_  your criterion, then I guess Gar thinks we are  _ **all**_  responsible. He won't talk to me either, or Rob or Star. In case it slipped past you, our Mr. Logan is a driven man these days. He's convinced the warp anomaly originated on Earth, and so now he's a one-man army out to find the source."

"You're just sayin' that t' be nice."

"I'm sayin' it 'cause it's the truth." He stood, leaned over to give her a hug, and walked to the door, where he paused to look at her. "You need to get some sleep. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"… Sure."

"And the night before?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you'd have a clearer view of things from the lofty heights of Enough Sleep. That's what I think."

He received a hopeless look and another minimalist shrug as an answer. Sighing, he went on out the door and pulled it shut behind him.

####

…  _some days later …_

Starfire came walking into the main room. Robin noticed this. She'd been walking most places recently, as opposed to flying. Dick Grayson knew that her people derived their strengths and supernormal abilities from their emotional state, and that to fly they had to tap into, as she'd put it, the Unbridled Joy of Life. He drew a long breath and let it out slowly.  _I guess there isn't that much for her to be joyful about right now._

She came over and stood in front of him. "Have you seen Beast Boy this day?"

"No, Star, I haven't. I haven't seen him since early yesterday." He turned to the bank of monitors in front of him and punched a few buttons. "But I know where he is."

The screen showed an overhead schematic of the state. A small, green dot blinked regularly some 200 klicks to the southeast. "He's down there right now. He was in L.A. this morning, and Reno last night."

"He slept there? Why did he not come back here to be with his friends?"

"He was there, but he wasn't sleeping. According to the tracker in his uniform, he hasn't stopped in one place for more than forty-five minutes since he left."

"You mean ... Beast Boy has been hunting all that time?"

"Yes."

"All night?"

"I'm afraid so.

"This is not a good thing for him to do." She sank to her knees in front of the Titans' leader. "I am afraid he will do himself an injury if he does not sleep. All humans need sleep, even ones such as him, ones who are special."

Cyborg, slouching on the long sofa, spoke up. "You're right, Star, but short of slipping him a mickey, there ain't a lot we can do. Rob gave him this much leeway to search for Raven because he needed to be doing something,  _anything_ , to keep himself occupied." Leaning back in his chair, he huffed in annoyance. "Man, I feel what he's going through, too. Things have been dead around here for the past month. That Doctor Baker dude hit it square when he said we'd see a drastic drop in crime. The cops ain't had much to do either, and I heard the Mayor say somethin' about it the other day, talkin' about cuttin' back the force."

"I'm afraid that would be a big mistake," said Robin, shaking his head. "This situation won't last forever, and if he clips the police down to a skeleton crew …"

Cyborg broke in, "He could be in some deep shit down the road."

"Yes, well, I'm not sure I'd put it in  _quite_  those terms …"

"For real, you wouldn't."

"Friends, please!" said Starfire, "Do not be doing the arguing." Looking intently at Robin, she asked, "Do you really think that our friend ... that Beast Boy is okay?"

"I think so. He's really antsy, though, and I think putting all this effort into tracking the source of the warp is his way of burning off the energy."

Starfire nodded slowly. "If you are sure that he is not in any danger, then I will wait patiently for him to return."

####

In truth, Beast Boy was not in any danger. The same could not be said about the people he was dealing with.

His investigative skills were not even a shadow of Robin's, but that was to be expected, considering who trained the Boy Wonder. However, Gar was getting better. He'd tracked down the one man whose name kept popping up in conversations around the seedier sides of the cities he visited. This thug kingpin, this Nathan Kranmar, had dealings with any number of metahuman criminals and local crime bosses. His web of illicit activity spread through three states, encompassing weapons trafficking, drug manufacture, contract killing, identity theft rings, prostitution, slavery, you name it. While some of his 'enterprises' had slowed down a little in recent weeks, by and large he was still in full swing. And Gar Logan was a fly on the wall, literally, at this, his latest meeting with his top men.

At one time Changeling's hearing would have been compromised in this form, but he had learned how to "mix and match" his abilities so that he  _did_  get the gist of most of it, and it was  _all he could do_  to wait until the meeting ended and the half-dozen middle managers filed out. Once they were gone and Kranmar had closed and locked the large double-door of rare, hand-carved, tropical hardwood, the crime lord went over to his liquor cabinet and poured himself two fingers of a very old single-malt scotch. He didn't get to drink it, though.

An enormous, hairy, green hand clamped onto his head and lifted him from the floor. His feet dangling, he was jerked around to face the furious eyes of a giant ape. He struck and struck at the limb that held him, but the creature didn't seem to notice. Then it spoke.

"I have to thank you, Mr. Kranmar. I've been fighting super-criminals and evil masterminds for so long that I forgot just how low and horrible a regular human can be. It's all been coming back to me over the last few days, and you just cemented it for me."

Kranmar would have screamed except that his jaw was being held shut by what felt like an industrial vice. He hung on to the huge arm with both hands to keep his neck from stretching.

"So now we have come to this, Mr. Kranmar. I have three questions to ask you. When I came here, I only had one, but you've changed things." His other hand reached out and gripped the criminal around the throat. He set the man, none too gently, on his own desk, and released the grip he had on his head. Kranmar was much too frightened at this point to so much as  _squeak_ , but Changeling leaned in close anyway, just to emphasize his point. "If you try to break free, I squeeze. If you try to yell, I squeeze." He relaxed his hold enough to let the man talk. Kranmar drew several shaky breaths.

"Now. Question one. Do you know who I am?"

"Y-y-y-y-yes … sir."

The ape nodded. "Good. Do you expect me to arrest you?"

Again the answer came in a stuttering affirmative.

"That's interesting. You know of me, so you know that my track record includes taking great care not to actually kill anyone." He edged forward until his breath was ruffling the man's comb-over. "So I guess that means your intelligence isn't all it's cracked up to be."

Kranmar became, if possible, even paler than before.

"Now, on to question three. What do you know about the generation of a warp anomaly near Jump City thirty-three days ago?"

"… A what?"

"A warp field. Used for faster-than-light drives in starships and for teleportation in some cultures."

"N-n-nothing! I swear! I don't know nothin' about any o' that shit!"

Gar nodded again. "I'm not surprised you'd deny knowledge. You think you're going to be arrested. You'll pull in your cadre of pinstriped sharks and be back on the street in time for a late nightcap at the club." He chuckled then, and Kranmar's heart froze solid and fell straight into his shoes.

The huge hand snapped out and grabbed Kranmar's right arm, pulled it out straight, and squeezed the hand. There was a staccato report as bones broke in two fingers, and Kranmar tried to scream. But there was no air. Hovering on the edge of consciousness, he realized that his chances of living through this were getting very slim.

Gar eased up the pressure on his throat enough to allow him to gasp a few times. Then he said, "You get one more chance to tell me the truth."

Casting about in his brain for something that would appease the beast, Kranmar dredged up a name. "It was … Brother Blood! He … did it."

"Brother Blood? That doesn't seem like his style. Are you dead sure?"

"Y-yes! It was him!"

"How do you know?"

"I … I-I … my men, my … lieutenant … heard it …"

The cold, black eyes blinked deliberately a couple of times. "You … are … lying. You don't know anything useful."

"No! N-no, I swear! It was …" His sentence abruptly stopped as Gar increased the pressure on his neck.

"See, here's the thing, Mr. Kranmar. Your little …  _kingdom_  you've got set up here is built on fear, not loyalty. Your men are afraid of you. They're afraid of each other, but they're more afraid of you. They're afraid of what you would do to them if they step out of line. That's a pretty shaky foundation to build a kingdom on. They don't last long. Raven taught me that. The leader of such an empire, as soon as he's dead, leaves behind chaos when his sons or his generals or both try to take over. It gets messy."

He paused to consider the struggling man. "It'll be the same here. When you die, your underlings will all try to take your place. They'll be at each other's throats before you're cold."

Kranmar's eyes pleaded with his captor, but Garfield Logan was unmoved. "You've managed to climb above the law around here. You're insulated, protected. You're immune to prosecution, no matter how much pain and death and mayhem you spread around."

Under the influence of Gar's increasing grip, Kranmar's eyes bugged.

"Well … I've decided that's a bad thing."

The man fought unsuccessfully for air. Gradually he passed out. Gar kept the pressure on for another few minutes, until the wildly racing pulse stopped. He dropped the corpse into a chair. Then he reverted to human and searched Kranmar's desk until he found a pistol. This he placed in the dead man's hand, positioned the muzzle under his chin, and pulled the trigger.

The report was extremely loud, and hurt Gar's sensitive ears, even as the bullet sent blood and bone and gobbets of brain matter spraying across the wall. Immediately the guards outside the door started yelling and banging on it.

Then Gar calmly walked over to a corner, morphed into a cockroach, and scuttled down an air register.

 


	7. History

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (And still the Titans insist they don't know me. "Never heard of him!" says Robin, and the others all nod like bobbleheads. That's gratitude, I tell you. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 7_

…  _elsewhere …_

Jinx came awake slowly. The longer she stayed in this place, the lazier she seemed to be getting.

But then, she reminded herself, there wasn't really a whole lot of  _point_  in getting up at all, much less getting up early.

Hah! Early. That was a novel concept in a place where night never visited. She slept as long as she felt like sleeping, and stayed awake until she got tired.

Rolling to her feet, she stretched and wandered over to the small hole between the roots of one of the bigger trees, so she could relieve herself. She'd not noticed any of these convenient little porta-potties during her initial day here, but then after her first sleep there seemed to be one at every glade.

She held very strong suspicions that this place was adapting itself to her needs. Creep-out city, if true.

That had happened 'yesterday', and 'today' she decided she'd been patient long enough. She knew Raven  _(Rachel … she asked you to call her Rachel)_  was an empath of some renown, and that meant that if she tried hard enough, the purple-eyed Titan might just hear her. So she picked a likely spot – there were certainly plenty to choose from – made herself comfortable, and concentrated on a mental image of her quarry.

_Hey Raven – Rachel, that is – get off the dime! Come in Super Goth Girl! Yo, Jinx here, calling the purple-haired, doe-eyed demon chick with the great rack! Rachel, Rachel, come in Rachel! Hey, Sweet Cheeks, it's your fault I'm here so …_

Raven tapped her lightly on the shoulder. Jinx screamed and flipped away, coming up in a fighting stance and fairly glowing with baleful hex energy. "For  _fuck's_ _ **sake**_ , woman! Don't do that!"

Holding up both hands in supplication, Raven said, "I'm sorry! You called and I came. I didn't mean to scare you."

With some effort Jinx contained the pink flux that suffused her skin, damping it and storing it away. She took the few steps necessary to get her back in Raven's face. Being about eight centimeters or so taller than the Titan, she could look down at her threateningly without much trouble. Oddly, Raven did not seem cowed.

"What did you need, Jinx?"

"You told me you were gonna go talk to someone – you never gave me a name – and then come back and explain about the water. I've been asleep twice since you left, and this place is  _boring_  me the  _hell_   _ **out!**_ "

An expression of real concern came to rest on Raven's face. "I am so  _sorry!_  Please believe me when I say I didn't mean to leave you here at loose ends. I truly lost track of time."

"How? How can you lose track when there's no 'time' to keep track of in the first place? Nothing changes here! There 's no night or day, nothing to break up the monotony, and I'm goin' stir-crazy!"

Raven held out her hand. "Then come with me. It was thoughtless to leave you to your own devices. Please let me make it up to you."

Jinx only stared at the proffered hand for a few seconds before taking it. "So, where we goin'?"

"To meet her," Raven answered simply. They rose into the sky.

This, reflected Jinx, was fundamentally different from any other time she'd been airborne-courtesy-of-Raven. There was no pain, for one thing, nor the supra-arctic chill that typically accompanied contact with Raven's  _(Rachel's! Try to remember!)_  that is, with Rachel's 'soul-self'; in fact, she seemed to be flying herself.

"Uh, Ra … Rachel?"

"Yes?"

"This feels funny."

"What does?"

"I'm just … floating. Floating along, just like somebody who can fly."

"But you  _can_  fly."

Jinx turned to look at the girl beside her, then glanced down at the hand she held. "Come again?"

"She's letting you."

"…  _ **She**_ , who?"

"It will be easier to show you than to try to explain. Oh, Jinx, I've been learning so much! She's so wonderful, so open and loving and … oh, but you'll meet, her, Jinx. We'll be there soon. You'll absolutely  _love_  her!"

Jinx was reserving judgment on that score. Most people didn't care much for Jinx's personality at first blush, and she knew it.

But really, no more than a minute passed before they came to a singularly tall, steep mountain, a large cave mouth prominent in the near side.

"We goin' in  _there?_ "

"Yes, we are."

"I don't much like caves."

"Oh, I think you'll like this one."

In truth, it didn't seem all that dark inside. They zipped in, slowing somewhat past the entrance, and angled slightly upward, shortly emerging into a vast interior chamber. And Jinx's jaw and eyebrows went in opposite directions.

The top of the mountain was one gigantic, hollow crystal, and the light that filtered in was refracted and reflected from billions upon billions of mirrored facets. It was the most colossal, most breathtaking universe of rainbows imaginable. Frankly it went somewhat  _ **past**_ Jinx's imagination, leaving her stunned and overwhelmed. She felt like she should say something, but … nothing came out. Her mouth worked open and shut a few times, but her vocabulary proved to be wholly unequal to the task.

"Isn't it pretty, Jinx?"

"… guhhhhhh …"

"I know! I just love it here."

"… zehhhhh …"

"Come on! Now you can meet her." And she grabbed Jinx's hand and they floated up into the center of the enormous cavity.

 _This has gotta be the galaxy's biggest geode._  Finally Jinx did manage to croak out, "Wha … what is this place?"

"This is where she can talk to us." They paused then, hovering in the middle of a perfect cascade of light. Raven closed her eyes and lifted her chin a bit in anticipation. "Wait and watch."

Watching was not a problem. Jinx was afraid to blink, afraid she might miss some nuance of the glory that bathed them from every direction; but looking all around, her gaze slid past her former enemy, and once she got a good look at Raven, she didn't look anywhere else. In this wealth of bright color, the dark girl's skin glowed and flashed and scintillated, her purple tresses marking counterpoint as her head swayed side to side, and Jinx was convinced then and there that no more beautiful thing had ever existed or ever would. But then Raven opened her eyes and smiled, proving her wrong.

Jinx slowly turned to face her, fascinated, spellbound. Lifting her other arm, she twined their fingers together, began to pull Raven closer …

… and a glorious keening, almost too high to hear and most  _definitely_  too awesome to bear, resonated in her mind.

**HELLO,**

**DEAR YOUNG SENTIENT**

**KNOWN AS JINX**

As the pink-haired metahuman teetered on the knife edge of consciousness, her psyche flooded and suffused with the power of this Other, she thought she heard Raven say something like, "Oh, dear. Perhaps I brought her to meet you too soon."

Then it all faded to white noise and went out.

####

The first thing that registered on Jinx's senses was warmth, closely followed by a fresh, earthy smell. Then she realized the smell was coming from the ground, upon which she was lying prone, her arms tucked in close to her sides. Then she realized that someone was lightly and expertly kneading the muscles of her back, and that it was one of the more pleasant experiences she could recall.

She opened her eyes. They were still in the cave, but not inside the celestial geode, and the light was low and diffuse. She could see that she was lying on a hummock of some dark green mossy growth, short and exceedingly soft, that cradled her perfectly. In her peripheral vision she could just make out the flare of Rachel's hip as the other girl ran her hands up and down Jinx's flank.

" … mmmmmmmmmm …"

The delightful pressure stopped, and Rachel's face came into her field of view. "Hi."

"Mm."

Rachel stretched out beside the pink-eyed girl. "So are you feeling better now?"

"Mm."

The dark girl dimpled. "What an astonishing lexicon you have."

"Mmhmm."

"We were a little worried about you. It seemed like you simply fainted, but you wouldn't wake up. She put you here, though, and said you'd be okay." She reached over and brushed a lock of pink hair out of Jinx's face. "I'm really glad."

Jinx drew a few long breaths and rolled onto her side. "Rachel?"

"Yes?"

"Who … or what … is she? Is she God?"

"Oh, Jinx! What a question. Of course not."

"But … she's so … so …"

"Yes, she is, isn't she?"

"So who is she?"

"Well … in some ways she's more of a 'what' than a 'who'. But at the same time she's the most warm, wonderful, caring individual I've ever met."

"That isn't really answering my question, Rachel."

"I'm afraid you'll have to let her explain."

"Damn it, Rae! Just having her talk to me  _once_  put my lights out! How am I supposed to listen to her for a whole …"

"Jinx, wait. She knows she can't … well, she can't speak with you the same way that does with me, so …"

"Whoa, whoa! You sayin'  _you_  can stand that?"

"Ahhmm … well, yes. See, that's why … oh, dear … Jinx, I'm afraid this is … rather complicated."

"You're telling me."

"Okay. Let's see. To start with … okay, to  _start_  with, we have to start a long time ago."

"Start at the beginning, huh?"

"Definitely. A long time ago – and I mean a really,  _really_  long time ago – there was a small globular cluster of super-massive stars."

"Huh. When you said  _long_ , you meant it, didn't you?"

Rachel nodded. "The stars were very close to each other, and one time several of them collided and the resulting supernova pushed one of the nearby stars out of the cluster."

" _Pushed_  the star? That musta been a hell of a bang."

"Truly. The star was blown right out of the cluster. It was moving so fast that eventually it moved completely out of that spiral arm and into a section of the galaxy that was more or less free of other stars. By the time the general galactic gravitational field brought it to rest relative to its sector, there wasn't another star within a hundred and eighty light years."

"That's a long way, right?"

"Very long. Well, I don't know if you were aware of this, but supernovae are what created the heavier elements."

"Uh … I'll … take your word for it?"

"Well, they are. And the supernova we are talking about was unusually powerful. It created a lot of those elements, mostly the medium-density ones like carbon and oxygen and chlorine, and spread them across this piece of galaxy. A cloud of them came with the rogue star, and eventually coalesced into a planet. But this planet was, um,  _unlike_  other planets. In most cases you either get small, rocky planets like Earth and Tamaran, or gas giants like Saturn and Palain IV."

"Who?"

"Never mind. Anyway, this planet was relatively small, maybe two and a half times as big as Earth, but had a much lower rate of … okay, without getting too heavily into the physics behind planet formation, lets just say that the nickel-iron core and mantle of lava that are down inside Earth are missing from this planet. Although it  _is_  bigger than Earth, it has a  _lower_  gravity, and its chemical makeup is … unique."

"Eh. I think I'm following you so far. Big planet, low gravity, and that's because of a low core density."

Rachel clapped her hands. "Very good!"

"Thank you, thank you; I'm here all week. Try the schnitzel."

That brought a chuckle from the other girl. "So, ah, this planet has lots of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sodium, sulfur, nitrogen … all the sorts of elements that add up to life. And just as life evolved on Earth, it came to be here as well."

"Makes sense."

"Umm … however, the way it arose on this planet was, ah, very different. To make a ridiculously long story a great deal shorter than it would have been, there is really only one life form here." Rachel paused and held Jinx's gaze while the pink-haired girl digested that.

"One."

"Yes. Just one. All that you see around you, all the trees and grass and other living things, all of them are parts of one being."

Jinx glanced down at the moss and then back at Rachel. The dark girl nodded.

"Um … eww?"

"No, no. It's not like that." Rachel sat up, turned square to Jinx, and crossed her legs, lotus fashion. "She's a … communal intelligence, I guess you'd say. The different parts are all her, but they're stand-alone parts as well."

"Okay. Hold up." Jinx held up a hand and tried not to let Rachel's suddenly very-well-presented body distract her. "So she's the only intelligence here?"

"Yes."

"And … we're a long way away from anything else?"

"Right. Keep going."

"Okay, wait up. You said star – no, you said super-massive star, as in huge, right?"

"Yes. Your point?"

"Where is it?"

"… It's overhead. The planet's rotation matches its period of revolution, so the same face is always …"

"Yeah, yeah, got that. What I mean is, why can't I see it? There's just a point of light, but I thought there ought to be a, you know, a disk, but …"

"Oh!" Rachel laid a slim hand on Jinx's arm, stilling her. "I understand your confusion now. Yes, the star is huge. It's a blue supergiant. And if we were close enough to see it as a disk, we'd get vaporized. This planet's orbit is  _much_  larger than Neptune's is around Sol."

Jinx got an 'ah-ha!' look on her face, and nodded. "Okay, got it. That's one mystery solved." She waved a hand at her companion. "You were saying."

"Right. She's the only one here, and she's been here for a really long time."

"How come she's not crazy? You know, like, from loneliness or boredom or some such."

"She's the most stable intellect in all of creation, that's why. Also, while she  _has_  been alone  _physically_ , she knows of other sentient beings. She's been able to detect them since shortly after she developed independent thought."

"… Ohhhhhhhh. Wow."

"Yes, wow. The distances involved make the mind reel, but she can sense the thoughts and emotions of other beings half a galaxy away."

"Holy … freaking … shit."

"That was sort of my reaction, too."

"Rachel … how old is she?"

"Something like … twenty-two million years, if my understanding isn't way off base."

Jinx just stared at her for a few moments, and then blinked. Then she blinked again, causing a single tear to spill out of one eye. "Millions of years … all alone. Oh, God." She leaned forward and grabbed Rachel in a fierce hug. "My  _God!_  All  _alone?_  How can she  _bear_  it? Rachel, that is the saddest, most awful thing I've ever heard!"

The other girl nodded, comforting Jinx by stroking her back. "Yes, to us it seems very sad. But she is not us, and to her it isn't sad." She pulled back just far enough to get face to face. "She thinks of this as more in the way of a mission."

Jinx was nonplussed. "… thinks of … what?"

"That's the  _reason_  we are here. That's why she took me." Then she returned Jinx's hug, with change. "And you came, too, and ordinarily that would be a  _bad_  thing, but not  _this_  time because  _you_  are  _ **special!**_ "

The level of confusion in the pink-haired girl rose markedly. "Ooookay, you lost me there."

"Well," answered Rachel, leaning back again (but not letting go of Jinx's arms) you recall the event that brought us here?"

"You mean that thing with the water?"

"Indeed. That was a localized, remote-operated – and boy, do I mean  _remote_  – warp field. She tracked me and waited until I was away from other populated areas, and then activated it. That's what pulled the water up into such a weird hump."

"Oh. So that was no accident. She was after you specifically."

"She was."

"Why?"

"It's something she does when she can. About every hundred years or so she will have absorbed enough of the right kind of energy to create one of those warp fields. It takes her a long time to set everything up just right, and when she does, she starts to … well,  _cast about_  for a likely mind."

"Likely?"

Raven nodded.

"What would make a mind 'likely'?"

"Being stable. Relatively advanced, especially from a control standpoint. But most of all, someone who wouldn't be driven crazy by being alone – more or less – for the rest of his or her life."

"Oh, yeah? Then how'd _ **I**_  end up here? Maybe it slipped by you, but I've never really been anyone's idea of stable."

"Eh … Every so often the warp field gets someone else in addition to the target. Not often, maybe one time in fifty or sixty. It's always accidental and it's always  _been_  very bad for everyone involved."

Jinx just that second processed an earlier statement to completion. "Wait a minute. You wait just a fuckin' minute, Rae! Are you saying we're stuck here for the rest of our  _ **lives?**_ "

The girl almost grinned. "No. I'm not saying that at all. If I had come here alone, then yes, sure. I'd be stuck here. But I wouldn't have minded. However,  _ **you**_ , my dear Jinx, as I believe I mentioned already, are  _ **special**_."

"Yeah? How so?"

"It's your hex energy. She's never encountered anything like it before, and she is very excited about the possibilities. She has already said that with the right preparation, she should be able to create warp fields without having to wait on the specific frequencies to come from her star." She pulled Jinx close and rested her chin on the taller girl's shoulder. "She'll be able to send us home, Jinx."

The metahuman was trying to grasp several concepts at once, all of them stubborn and slippery. "So … she wants to send us back home?"

"Yes!"

"Was that the plan all along?"

"Sort of. She wanted to be able to, but hadn't figured out a way yet."

"Then … hold the phone, here … that makes  _no_  freakin'  _sense_ , Rae! Why go to all that trouble to kidnap us in the first place if she's just going to pull the biggest catch-and-release caper in history?"

"It's what she's wanted all along, Jinx. She wants contact."

"Well, so would I after twenty-two million … wait." She screwed her eyes shut, thinking at a furious rate. "Son of a bitch. How long has she been doing this long-range kidnap shtick?"

Rachel bit her lower lip softly, studying the other girl for a bit. Then she stood and beckoned for Jinx to follow her. They went through a small opening in the side of the passage, following a winding, spiraling trail into the base of the mountain, finally emerging into a long, low, wide passage. Crystals dotted the roof every couple of meters and gave off a soft light. Jinx stopped a few paces before Rachel did, shocked into immobility. Rachel turned back to her. "You wanted to know. Come on."

Slowly Jinx started putting one foot in front of the other, following the former Titan on into the room and in among the things clustered there. Nothing was arranged, or placed in rows, or even grouped in any way that made sense. But there were, stretching off past sight in three directions, stony pedestals that stuck up out of the floor of the cavern about half a meter. And on each one was posed a creature.

Many of them (the ones close enough to see) were bipedal and roughly hominid-shaped. But more were not. One looked like a giant, floating neuron. One resembled the body of a headless deer with half a dozen leathery, eyeless snakes hanging off each side of its torso. One looked vaguely like a cross between a bright red monkey and an octopus. And they went on and on and on and on and …

Jinx turned to Rachel and demanded, "What is all this shit?"

"These are all the creatures that she brought to this place."

"But you said it takes her, like, a  _hundred years_  to power up for  _one_  warp!"

"That's right."

"But … but there must be … must be  _hundreds_  here!"

"Nine thousand, one hundred and thirty-seven, to be exact."

"… Nine … thousand … . . . … shit."

"She's been doing this for a while."

"So she brought all these, ah, beings here, just to satisfy some sort of  _urge?_  She killed them for  _curiosity?_ "

"No, Jinx. She didn't kill them. The vast majority of them died happily, peacefully, of old age. They wouldn't have been taken if they hadn't possessed the necessary mind. The few that didn't were among the ones who came with the target accidentally." She poked Jinx lightly on the arm. "Like you."

"Not  _helping_ , Rae!"

"Oh, but it is! It is. How many times must I say that you are special?"

"I like being special for the right reasons, to the right people, but this is … I mean it's just …"

"Hard to grasp, yes. I know. The scale of this undertaking is boggling."

"Now just … just chill a minute. Ninety-one hundred you said?"

"In round figures, yes."

"That's about … nine hundred thousand and change. But she's been around for, like, twenty-five times that long. Am I right?"

"Yes. But she only recently – well, for her – developed the ability to aim the warp fields. That's how she is trying to contact the rest of the galaxy." Her face grew solemn as she stared into those luminous pink eyes. "She wants to help. She has  _always_  wanted to help."

She moved closer, cupped the pink-eyed face in her hands, and placed a light kiss on one cheek. "Jinx, she can feel the thoughts and yearnings and desires and fears of the scattered trillions of souls in this half of the galaxy. She has vicariously been a part of  _billions_  of wars, and has tasted the death and despair and waste that always come in their wake. She showed me a triple-star system where every star had planets with advanced civilizations. Those planets went to war, a series of steadily-escalating hostilities that lasted several lifetimes. In the final battles they destroyed each other's home-world."

"Dam … nation."

"The few survivors spent the rest of their lives hunting down and exterminating survivors from the other worlds. Many years later the last two ships found each other in the asteroid belt that was all that remained of one of the planets. Their ships' weapons would no longer work, so they fought each other hand-to-hand. When that fight ended, only two were left alive, both from one side. They realized that they were all that remained of the billions that had inhabited the three worlds."

Jinx's lower lip was trembling. She grasped Rachel around her wrists.

"They killed themselves."

"Shit! No! Dammit, Rae! Why the hell'd you  _tell_  me that?"

"Jinx, that war happened six and a half million years ago. No one else alive right now knows  _ **they**_  ever existed. And that is just one story. It doesn't even  _start_  to  _begin_  to  _wonder_  about scratching the  _surface_." Rachel released the girl's face, hugged herself and spun around. "Just think! All those stories. All those lost civilizations. A compendium of galactic history, and it's all right here!"

"Whuh … za? But … are you saying she remembers everything she's ever seen – ah, felt – eh, that is, um, known?"

"Yes. She's got it all. See, her mind is millions of times bigger and more advanced than ours. She doesn't forget anything. Ever."

"Damn."

"But, Jinx, listen! The history, the war stories, the conflict … that's only one side of the die. She has also listened in on every major philosophical discussion in the last twenty million years. She has seen cultures that grew and matured and overcame their obstacles and reached their philosophical zenith. It has happened too many times for us to number, and she's got all that wisdom right here.  _Right here!_  And, Jinx, she wants to share!  _That's_  her goal: to take the distilled experience of billions of cultures, the wisdom they gained, their failures and triumphs, and show  _us_  how to do it!"

Stunned, her pink eyes dilated with the possibilities, Jinx plopped down on the floor. "Holy shit."

"Heh. Yeah."

"But … but, Rae! Are we even  _ready_  for that?"

"Some of us are. And she knows which ones. She says Earth is ready."

"But, how, Rae? How could she possibly know whether humans would be able to use what she knows? Most people  _ **I**_  know aren't good for much besides turning food into fertilizer!"

No answer came to her question, and Jinx took a keener look at the other girl. Rachel threw her arms wide, her eyes open, but … glowing. Then, as Jinx took a step back, the Voice issued from Rachel's throat.

**I have witnessed scenes of Cruelty, Savagery, and Hate**

**That would send the most stable Mortal Mind**

**Reeling into Insanity, and I am saddened.**

**I long to explain to the tiny, bright, sharp**

**Flashes of Spirit**

**That they need not fight, need not kill,**

**That death will come to All Flesh soon enough**

**And that they can be so much more in their brief lives;**

**Each one of them can contribute Something,**

**And so advance the culture.**

**Each one can have Meaning,**

**Can bring Joy to others and so gather Joy back.**

**But the vast, teeming Majority**

**Of the Minds I have touched**

**Do not understand this.**

**They need a Teacher, a Mentor.**

**I have come to see this as my Mission.**

**I have seen unparalleled Joy,**

**Hope flying with a Free Wing,**

**Inexpressible Love,**

**Ultimate Contentment, and**

**Vast deeps of Wisdom**

**Expressed from time to time.**

**Where I could, I sent my Aid to these Beings,**

**Walking lightly through their Dreams**

**And leaving small Hints,**

**Subtle Clues**

**To the Hidden Answers for which they sought.**

**But it was always so far, so faint,**

**That the Touch was less**

**Than that of a Gnat's wing to a Boulder.**

**Seldom –**

**Oh! So very seldom –**

**Was I able to help much at all.**

**But now I have found This ONE!**

**First I felt her when she battled the Ultimate Evil,**

**The Demon Lord that willed her Birth**

**And tried his Hand at stealing Earth;**

**She fought him,**

**She stopped him,**

**But more, she overcame Herself,**

**In denying the Essential Evil in her Soul**

**And embracing Good instead.**

**And more, the Twin Nature of that Soul**

**With its heritage in two Planes,**

**Offers the Chance**

**At long, long last,**

**For First Contact**

**With the Galaxy!**

**And you, young Sentient known as Jinx,**

**You are the Key,**

**The Code,**

**The Riddle's End,**

**The Missing Tumbler in the Lock.**

Rachel's arms fell slowly to her sides. She lowered her head and turned to face Jinx, who stood rooted, trembling. Those unearthly, luminous eyes bored into her mind.

**Do not fear, young Sentient known as Jinx.**

**No Harm will befall You,**

**Though you may need to Die**

**Many Times.**

**You are Loved …**

**Loved …**

**Loved …**

The light went out, and Rachel slumped to the floor. Jinx, released from the geas of those terrible eyes, ran to her and helped her sit up. She was murmuring, "Loved … loved … loved …" and pink eyes stared at her in alarm.

"Come on, Rae, snap out of it!" She gave the girl a little shake. "Rae! Rachel! Look at me!"

The dark head came up slightly, the eyes trying to focus. In a very faint voice, she said, "… Jinx?"

"Yes! Good! There you are!"

Rachel reached up with one arm and gave the girl a weak embrace. "… so … beautiful … so … nice …"

"No! Don't do that! Stay with me, girl. You're right here. The …  _whatever-she-is_  is gone, 'kay? Come on, look at me! Look at me. Yes! That's right."

Rachel blinked a few times and gave Jinx a timid smile. "Hu – Hello."

"Hi, yourself. You back now?"

"Oh,  _Jinx!_ " Rachel increased pressure on the arm she had around Jinx's neck, pulling them together for a long kiss that shocked the metahuman to her toes.

_She's kissing you!_

_No shit! Do something!_

_Like what? Shouldn't you kiss her back?_

_But … but …_

_Hey, this is nice!_

_Yeah, but … but …_

_Right, she's got a sweet butt, too!_

_Cut that out!_

The inner dialogue was cut short when Rachel broke the kiss and flopped back onto the floor. "Mmm … Jinx?"

The pink-haired girl was a little too discombobulated to come up with a more cogent reply than, "Huh?"

"Gonna sleep now, 'kay?" And with that she rolled over onto her side, gave a low, contented sigh, and slept.

Jinx stared at her for long seconds before crossing her legs under her and rubbing her face with both hands.  _Okay, Jinx, what The Hell just happened?_


	8. Training

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Yet again the Titans declined to have anything official to do with me. No character-creating, no consulting arrangement, no financial remuneration. Apparently they think I can't do anything right. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 8_

_Earth … seven weeks after the Transition Event …_

Starfire stopped in front of Garfield Logan's door and, since it was about half-open, she snuck a peek inside. The place was a mess, and a smelly one at that. Not unusual,  _per se_ , but the mounds of detritus were higher and more numerous than she remembered. The shape-shifting Titan was lying on his bed in the form of a great cat of some kind, and appeared to be asleep.

"Friend Be- ah, I mean, Gar? May I come in?"

One large, black eye opened and swiveled in her direction, stared for a few seconds, and then closed again.

"Please?"

The creature morphed back into human base-state and sat up, swinging his legs off the side of the bed. "What do you want, Star?"

The alien took a few hesitant steps into the room. "I wish to … help?"

"And how would you go about that, exactly?"

"I … I feel … un-useful. I want to help dear Robin, but he says there is nothing for me to do. I have tried to do the girl-talk with Terra, but she is on patrol so much and I … she does not wish my help. I believe that she feels … some kind of … responsibility for what happened. I have tried to discuss this with her, but she will not." She closed the gap between them and knelt in front of the green Titan. "Our dear friend Cyborg is working with the Justice League and is gone much of the time, and when he is here he does not …" She looked away and blinked, sighing. Then she took Gar's hands in hers. "Gar, I am not able to help them. I do not know what I can do by myself. This feeling of … being without power, being … weak … this is not a good feeling. There is much stress. I have not felt this way since I was banished into a slave-marriage before I ever met all of you." She swallowed and said, again, "This is not a good feeling."

"What do you want  _me_  to do about it, Dude? We're in the same boat. I haven't even been able to find out where that warp thing _came from_ , much less who  _sent_  it!"

"Let me … help you. Just tell me what you need, and I will …"

"Star … look, I appreciate it, Dude, but I don't have any answers for you. If you wanna go out and try to find out who did it on your own, go for it." His eyes glinted then, hard as diamond. "Just let me know if you figure anything out."

"I would truly like to do this, but … where do I start?"

He drew a long breath and let it go slowly. "If I knew  _that_ , I wouldn't be  _here_." Then he morphed into a hummingbird and flitted out the door, leaving Starfire alone amid the garbage.

####

Victor Stone let the latest Watchtower printout drop to his desk, and slumped back in the chair. "So we still got nothin'."

Dr. Baker's head and shoulders filled the monitor screen. His image frowned at the metallic Titan. "Did I say that? Did I even _intimate_  that we had made no progress? I did not! We have a direction."

"What we  _got_ , Doc, is a sort of vague hint that it might have originated from somewhere out towards the  _edge_  of the freakin' _galaxy_."

"Which is more than we had before, correct?"

Victor disliked the scientist's attitude almost as much as his accent. Dr. Anthony Baker's father hailed from Yorkshire, but his mother was born in Bombay and that's where he had grown up. His command of English was perfect – better than Victor's as far as that goes – but the western Indian intonations bugged the cyborg more than he liked to admit. "Your data don't make much sense, though, Doc." He put up a hand to forestall the inevitable objection. "If what you're sayin' is on target, what we got is a source that's somethin' like twelve or fifteen thousand  _parsecs_  away. That's just crazy. If there even  _was_  a warp generator that big, the energy it would take to run it would sap the entire output of a  _planet!_  It just ain't possible!"

"The concept of 'not possible' should be stricken from the language. Just because  _you_  do not know how something may be done does not mean it cannot  _be_  done."

"Fine. You explain it, then."

"I cannot. But data are data, and these data are solid."

"So you're askin' me to believe that somebody diverted the entire power output of a large, fairly advanced planet into creating a warp anomaly a quarter of the way across the galaxy for what looks like the abduction of a single person?" He shook his head emphatically. "Like I said. Makes no sense."

"To you."

Victor hit the 'OFF' button with rather more force than it required, then sat there, staring at the dark screen for some time.

####

…  _Nine weeks after the Transition Event …_

Nonplussed, Robin stared at Terra. "You want to  _spar?_  Really?"

She only nodded, but it fairly made the team leader's heart soar. "Great! Just name the time."

"Now."

"Cool." He glanced around the main room, but the only other Titan in evidence was Cyborg, and he was deeply involved in a four-way discussion on warp mechanics. Turning back to the thin blond, he said, "Looks like it'll just be us. That okay?"

"Sure. I just need to test something."

Robin was too excited about one of his team members actually showing a little training initiative to catch the undertone in her voice. He jumped up and trotted to the door. "I'll meet you at Yard 2 in five minutes."

She followed him with her eyes, then strode purposefully out after him.

When Robin arrived at the Training Yard she was already there, and had quite a number of good-sized rocks floating in the air around her. He came over and said, "Do you have a preference?"

"Defense."

"Fair enough. How do you want to do it, straight up, or random encounter?"

"Surprise me."

It was at that point that he noticed the determination in her narrowed eyes. He paused, locking gazes with her, and then asked, "Is there something you want to tell me first?"

The inner debate lasted hardly any time before she shook her head. She only said, "Hit me with your best shots," and then floated out to the other end of the Yard.

He trotted over to the control console and tapped in a few commands. A dozen or so large obstacle-shaped things rose from the yard, varying in height from three to seven meters. Robin melted in among them.

At the sound of the warning klaxon, Terra moved forward into the obstacle field. The rocks took up strategic positions around her, and six of them plastered themselves to her body, stretching and molding to fit her contours in a sort of mineral version of plate mail. As she passed one of the shorter obstacles, Robin came over the top, his bo staff high and already descending with him.

She didn't look his way. If Robin's vantage point had been a little different, he'd have seen that her eyes were closed. Nevertheless, a large rock jumped between them, spinning madly, taking the force of the blow and deflecting it to the side. Robin hadn't been expecting that little twist, but he recovered instantly and began his assault in earnest. Rock after rock burst apart under the sledgehammer blows, but the resulting gravel whirled back to collect in the air around the geomancer. When, after about eight seconds, she was down to a mere three rocks, the huge cloud of gravel darted over toward her attacker. He was surrounded in a trice, covered in stone like sleaze on a politician, and immobilized. Except for his face, he was completely enveloped, and his startled expression was definitely worth the price of admission.

Wheeling slowly over in his direction, Terra opened her eyes and smiled grimly. "Gotcha." Then she released the gravel and Dick Grayson dropped a couple of centimeters to the ground.

Dusting himself off, he looked at Terra with respect. "That was a heck of a trick."

"Thanks."

"You just come up with that?"

"I did." She concentrated briefly and a forest of needle-sharp spikes rammed up out of the ground in a tight ring around the Teen Wonder. He didn't flinch, but he did eye them uneasily. "I had this one, too, but since my control still needs some polish I opted for the safer one."

"And you've no idea how much I appreciate that."

That elicited an abbreviated giggle. The spikes slid back into the dirt and Robin walked over to the girl. He poked at her rocky armor and nodded in approval. "Very nice. That should save you a lot of cuts and bruises."

"I hope so."

"Looks like you've picked up  _several_  new tricks."

She got serious again. "I figure I'll need 'em. Me an' Star were talking about the T-E that hit Tamaran – you know when that scientist dude was tellin' us about it?"

"Right. He said the legend was that it lasted three years."

"Yeah, well, it was more of a lull than a real break. And y'know crime hasn't gone  _away_  here. It's just damped down some."

"True. At least the Mayor hasn't cut back the police force."

"That's good. So anyhow, Star said that, according to the stories, after three years they were right back where they started." She brought one of her rocks around in front of her. "And humans aren't nearly as noble as Tamaranians."

A quick snort signified Robin's agreement with  _that_  statement. He indicated her armor again. "So how'd you come up with this?"

"It was somethin' Cy said. He wanted to know how come I couldn't affect metal. See, dirt and rock and stuff? It's got metal in it, aluminum mostly, but several others, too. But they aren't … oh, what was his word? Oh, yeah, 'refined'. They aren't refined, they're still in combination with non-metals like oxygen and sulfur and chlorine and so on."

"Yeah, so?"

She shrugged. "I can't feel 'em if they're refined. I don't know what the difference is or why it works that way, but once a metal gets pulled out of its ore, it's like it's invisible. As long as the aluminum or calcium or whatever is combined with somethin' else, I can move it." The rock floated down and came to rest in her hand. "So he wanted to know. He asked if there was anything else I could do beside just move it, an' I said 'No' an' he said 'Why not?' an' I said 'Because' an' he said 'That ain't good enough' an' I went off an' thought about it. What he said made sense, so I just … sorta … looked farther into the rock."

"Successfully, it would seem."

"Yeah. I did some experiments. I can work with dressed stone, like what some buildings are made of. I can  _feel_  glass, sorta-kinda, but I can't do anything with it. Same with glazed ceramic tiles. But brick? Yeah, I'm  _all over_  me some brick, as long as they haven't been glazed all over. It's kinda like metal. Refined, ya know?"

Robin nodded. "I think I'm seeing a pattern here."

"Yeah, me, too." She stared at the rock in her hand, which began to puff up like a marshmallow in a microwave oven. "So anyhow, after thinkin' about it, I couldn't come up with a reason why this wouldn't work." When the rock had tripled its size, dust began to fly off of it. Robin took a step back and watched in fascination as the grayish-brown substance gradually became clear. Once it was completely transparent, the former rock elongated, wiggled a few times, and settled into the shape of a classic Roman spatha. Terra took a few swipes with it and gave another of those grim smiles. "Know what I'm sayin'?"

"Didn't you just say that you couldn't manipulate glass?"

"This ain't glass. Cy did some research for me and came up with this. It's called aluminum oxynitride. It's a ceramic, but it's clear."

"…  _Transparent_  aluminum? You going all 'Star Trek' on us now?"

"Heh. That's what Cy said." She concentrated again and the sword whiffed into fine particles and fell to the ground. Looking back at Robin, she said, "Thanks. I'm gonna go patrol now." And before he could say a word she shot into the sky and was gone.


	9. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (START
> 
> IF [Anyone Asks] THEN
> 
> DO [Titans = Not Mine]
> 
> UNTIL [Heat Death of Universe = True]
> 
> ELSE [Incoherent Mumbling]
> 
> ENDIF
> 
> -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 9_

…  _elsewhere …_

When Rachel finally opened her eyes, it was to find Jinx gazing at her steadily. The pink-haired sorceress was lying beside her, lightly and slowly stroking Rachel's arm. A warm smile grew on the Titan's face. "Hi."

"Rae, can I ask you a question?"

"You just did, so I guess you can."

Jinx's lips quirked in a quickly-repressed smile. "Your point. And really, I've got more than one."

"Ask away."

"Why did you kiss me?"

Rachel reached up with her free hand and laid it against Jinx's neck. "We have a reasonably solid emotional link. You can  _know_  what I feel if you want to. Why don't  _you_  tell  _me_?"

Several seconds eased by hesitantly before Jinx said, "Because I'm afraid."

Scooting herself a little closer, Rachel draped her arm over Jinx's waist. "Okay, then, I have a question for you."

The other girl gave her an apprehensive look. "I'm afraid of that, too."

"You needn't be. It's a simple question, easily remedied with one word. I was wondering – have been wondering for a long time – what your given name is. All I know is 'Jinx', and I don't think your parents named you that."

Jinx's lips twisted in distaste. "My parents. Well. Why don't we talk about something more pleasant? Like, for instance, amoebic dysentery?"

"Whoa. Touched a nerve there."

Jinx rolled away and stood, then walked off in the general direction of the crystal cavern. Rachel shortly followed her, never losing sight of the bobbing pink hair. Jinx flopped down on another of the convenient mossy hummocks right at the edge of the opening into the scintillating universe of light. Her companion stopped a few steps to her right, and waited for her to speak.

It was a long wait. She silently stared out into the actinic glory for quite a while. But at last Jinx said, "I don't think about my parents. Not unless I have to … and I don't have to very often."

"From that boiling kettle of emotional stew I can sense, I'd say you have some unresolved issues with them."

Jinx barked a laugh at that. "You think?"

Rachel came over and dropped to her knees, capturing the gaze from those pink eyes. "I know you've been on your own for a long time. You entered the H.I.V.E. Academy when you were twelve, but you'd been living on the streets. That's not anybody's concept of 'normal' for a kid. I know you're not 'normal' in the usual sense – for that matter, neither am I – but even so, that's mighty strange."

Jinx glanced away. "And I  _turned out_  mighty strange, didn't I? Truth in advertizing."

Rachel reached over and trailed her fingers down Jinx's arm, causing a shiver. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable. Azar knows I've already done that enough for one lifetime."

"Several."

Rachel chuckled. "As you say. But if you'd rather not talk about it …"

"That's not really the problem." She paused, studying Rachel's face. "You've got a demon for a dad, right?"

"… That's right."

"Tried to destroy the world? Kill everyone? Bring about the Apocalypse? That sort of thing?"

"Yes. He did. How does that relate to …"

"And you stopped him."

"Well … yes. With a significant amount of help."

"Uh-huh." Jinx nodded. "Well, we may have that in common. My father might not have been a real, live, magic-working, fire-conjuring _demon_ , but you'd never know it by his actions … at least not where I was concerned."

A sympathetic frown came to rest on Rachel's face. "I'm sorry."

"Not as sorry as I was, I'll bet." She was silent for a few seconds, and then seemed to come to a decision. Nodding to herself, she continued, "I'd always been … what they called 'funny-looking', and my, ah, 'gift' showed up pretty early. By the time I was five or six my relatives were referring to me as 'that black cat girl' or 'little miss bad luck' or 'the walking accident'. I couldn't control it then, and things just … happened. I didn't know what was going on. If I got mad, things would break. My  _mother_  …" she spat the word out like a piece of bad fruit, "thought I was possessed. She and an aunt had joined this stupid cult, and they dragged me to the leader guy for an exorcism. They called him Brother Buck. He went through a bunch of mumbo-jumbo and told them that, yes, I was harboring a demon and that it would take a lot of work to get rid of it. He had them bring me back the following night, and he had one of the rooms in his house fixed up like a set from 'Tales From the Crypt'. They all prayed around me – lots of screaming and crying and babbling and crap – and then he sent the others out and set me down in a chair and put his hands on my head while doing his own wailing and moaning. Then he told me I had to get undressed."

"Oh, Jinx, no!"

The pink eyes narrowed. "Oh, yes. He, ah, patted me down pretty thoroughly. Then he made me get dressed again and called in the women and told them he needed to see me the next night. That went on for four nights."

"What an awful creep!"

"Uh-huh. The fifth night he had 'em take me back to his … bedroom …" She stopped, looked away, and swallowed. "He gave me something to drink. Then he had these … these thick, silk ropes and he … tied me down. I don't remember much of what happened after that."

Rachel whispered, "By Azar."

"The next night he had them bring my father, too. Brother Buck sent the women out and explained to my father what needed to be done. They tied me to the bed, face-down. Then … my father took a big leather belt and he …"

"Jinx, please," she said around the huge lump in her throat, "you don't have to …"

"… and he stood at the end of the bed and watched while Brother Buck fucked me in the ass. My father just stood there and let him." Jinx's voice was nearly a deadpan; she might have been discussing carpet samples with a salesman. "It hurt so much. I cried and screamed until my throat bled, but he wouldn't look at me. Brother Buck kept calling me 'bitch' and 'whore' and 'abomination'. After a while my father started to beat me across the back with the belt, but it didn't hurt as much as what Brother Buck was doing. He kept saying, 'Out! Out! Out!' like some kind of mantra."

Rachel was crying freely now. She hugged the other girl close.

"I was nine."

Racking sobs shook the dark-haired girl as she held Jinx and relived that ordeal with her. After  _quite_  a few minutes, when Rachel had regained a measure of calm, Jinx continued, "Brother Buck had a pacemaker. It suddenly went into overload, and he fell off of me and keeled over on the floor. My father started yelling, and the women came back in and saw what they were doing, and … there was a lot _more_  screaming and yelling. At some point I realized that all the ropes had broken. I scooted off the bed, grabbed my clothes, and ran home."

"I didn't sleep that night. Every part of me hurt, 'specially where Brother Buck had been having his way with me. It had bled for a while. I was so scared they'd take me back there. Of course by then he was dead, but I didn't know that at the time. I didn't understand what had happened to me, except that my father, who was supposed to protect me from shit like that, had tossed me to the wolves and just watched while they tore me apart. Way before dawn the next morning my mother dragged me out of bed and told me I had to leave. She said the demon in me had killed Brother Buck and that my father had told her it was him or me. I tried to explain what happened, but she slapped me and told me to shut up. That's when the water heater exploded."

"Exploded!"

Jinx gave no sign that she'd heard Rachel's exclamation. "It was a gas heater. Caught the house on fire. We all ran outside. My …  _father_ had a shotgun. He was yelling about how the demon had done it, and the demon had to die, and he pointed the gun at me."

"Oh, god."

"I saw him do it. I saw the look in his eye, that awful hate, that terrible fear. He wasn't a well-educated man. He held his share of superstitions. I guess it's possible that he really did think I had a demon in me." Her pretty mouth twisted in disgust. "He was going to kill me. He had every intention of killing me, and I knew it cold. I was so scared I couldn't even scream. But I threw a hand out, and this pink ball of flame shot over and hit the gun … and it blew up in his hands. My mother screamed, and … I  _think_  she ran over to him. That part's kinda hazy. But it was like … all of a sudden I had this …  _fountain_  inside me. It just swelled up and filled me. Another ball of pink fire popped up in my hand, and I threw that one, too, toward the house. There was another explosion – what went 'bang' that time, I don't know – and the nearest wall started to fall toward us."

Rachel's breathing was fast and shallow. The emotional torrent streaming off Jinx nearly overwhelmed her.

"I ran." She took a long pull of air through her nose and let it out slowly. "I ran all the way to downtown, dodging through alleys and back yards, and I hid in the baggage compartment of a bus, and I left that place, and I never went back." She twisted around a little to face Rachel more fully. "I don't know if they're dead or alive, and I really don't care." She stopped, thought that over, and snorted. "Okay, I lie. I _do_  care. I hope like hell they burned to death under that wall."

Jinx could tell at that point that Rachel was a basket case. The dark head shook in a regular rhythm of weeping. Jinx scooted closer and hugged her former enemy, trying to offer comfort and support.

Rachel looked up and asked, through the gasps and gulps and hiccups, "How c-c-can you  _bear_  it? How can you … get through th-the  _day_ … and not …"

"I once heard somebody say that it's really amazing what you can put up with, if it  _has_  to be put up with. That's how I do it."

"But you aren't even crying or …"

"I used up all the tears I had on that sack o' shit a long time ago. It would just waste water to do it all over again." She patted Rachel's head gently. "And to answer your first question, I like 'Jinx' a lot better than my given name, and I'd really rather you call me that."

"God, Jinx, I had no idea you were so strong!"

She shook her head emphatically. "I'm  _not_  strong. I'm stubborn. It's different." She smoothed Rachel's hair back away from her tear-stained face.  _God, she's beautiful. Inside and out._ "Hey, Rae, you gonna be okay?"

Rachel had caught the stray complimentary emotion as if flitted across Jinx's mind. "Yeah." …  _sniff_  … "I think so. If you are. And you look like you are."

Rachel was already in Jinx's arms, the dark head cradled just under her collarbone. She looked so cute and vulnerable and sincere … and handy. It just seemed like the most natural thing in the world to bend the remaining few centimeters necessary to bring their lips together.

Jinx had a much better vantage point this time to examine how she felt about this.

Physically, it was incredible. Rachel was all soft lines and smooth curves, her lips plump and rich, still hot and trembling slightly from her weeping.  _She tastes like a cool autumn evening!_  Jinx pulled away for just an instant to take a breath, and then when she reached down to recapture that glorious mouth, Rachel was nothing if not encouraging. She twined her fingers into Jinx's cotton-candy tresses and held on hard.

Emotionally it was even better. She knew what Rachel was feeling (especially as close as they were now!) and it resonated with her own response, building together into a towering crag of desire that made her weak and light-headed.

They broke the kiss and rested, breathing hard, clutching each other fiercely. More than a minute passed before Jinx broke the silence. "Rae?"

"… Yes?"

"How did … we get here?"

"By a crooked road, of that I'm sure."

Jinx buried her face in the hollow of Rachel's neck, squeezing her eyes hard to stop the tears. Rachel whispered, "You don't have to hold back on my account."

"But … Jinxes don't … cry."

"Maybe they should."

"No! I can't …"

"Can't what?"

Almost inaudibly, "… I'm afraid."

"I understand. You're afraid to love." The emotional backlash from that simple statement rocked the empath's mind. "Oh, Jinx, I'm  _so sorry!_  You've never … No. You haven't. Oh, Jinx." She scooted herself a little farther up Jinx's lanky form, softly pressed her lips to the pink hair, then to the cheek under it, then to the lids of each of her marvelous cat-like eyes. A few wet spots on Jinx's face marked the passage of Rachel's tears as she fitted their minds together. "The only people you ever dared to love unconditionally were not worthy of it. You were betrayed. You have never loved anyone unreservedly since."

Jinx shook her head, not trusting her voice.

"And you're afraid it will be the same with me. That I will …  _hate_  you? Jinx!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Oh, Sweetie! Jinx, look at me." The pink head stayed where it was, her face hidden behind her long bangs. "Jinx? Please?"

The pink irises found hers, the vertical-slit pupil nearly round in the low light. All the need and fear in those eyes tore at Rachel like a grappling hook, and she cradled her new love gently. "Do you think me untrustworthy?"

"What?" Jinx sat up suddenly, pulling back a little. "No! I don't! I couldn't! Just knowing what you feel … I mean, it's … I can't …"

"Exactly. Hon, please don't be afraid to love me. Because I'm certainly not afraid to love you."

Jinx stared into those deep purple orbs for several long moments, breathing raggedly. "But why not?"

"Why would I be?"

"… Because I'm a  _criminal!_  I mean, shit, Rae, come on! We've been on opposite sides of the law since before we met!"

"And why do you think that is?"

"… Uh … because I liked stealing stuff and you liked stopping me?"

Rachel's tinkling laugh made Jinx's belly go all wobbly. "That's yet another thing I love about you. You have a brutal honesty and a delightful turn of phrase."

"And it still doesn't fix our problem."

Rachel reached over and pulled the taller girl to her breast. "I think we can burn that bridge when we come to it. In the mean time, we are here, and we have each other, and our problems, such as they are, are back on Earth."

"… I suppose."

"And Earth is tens of thousands of light years from here, and the long arm of the law just isn't long enough."

Jinx couldn't really argue with that logic. She snuggled into the soft, silken weight of Rachel's bosom. "And to think that a few days ago we were trying to kill each other."

"I never …"

"Yeah, hang on, me too. That was just a figure of speech. I know you never tried to kill me. And I didn't really want to kill you, either. I wanted you to leave me alone." She cuddled closer and followed that up with, "But not now! Please, please, don't  _ever_  leave me alone again!"

Rachel whispered, "I won't! Oh, my sweet, precious Jinx, believe me, I won't!"


	10. Trouble Stirring

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (My universe and the DC universe have what you might call a hyperbolic relationship. That is, they approach to an infinitesimal distance, but never actually touch. Their stuff isn't mine, and mine isn't theirs. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 10_

_Earth … a Friday night in July … twelve weeks after the Transition Event …_

It was raining. Again.

The day had turned out much like the several that preceded it (i.e.: it sucked ass). The flip side of the Transition Event's effects – the rise in insanity – was taking a nasty turn recently and all Robin had wanted at the end of  _this_  day was a shower and some snuggle time with Kori. But it was not to be.

Instead, he stood before the huge window that fronted the common room in Titan's Tower, hands clasped stiffly at the small of his back, staring out through the falling gray curtain. He wasn't really seeing it, though. He had more pressing things than precipitation on his mind, all of them connected end-to-end on a repeating loop right behind his eyes.

####

The previous Tuesday, three days past, Terra was – once more – on patrol, when a 911 call got diverted to her T-Com. She studied the coordinates briefly, turned left, and streaked down toward a residential section of Jump City, coming to a shuddering halt in front of a day-care center. Three women immediately ran over to her, one wailing, one sobbing, and one looking very determined. That one said, "Jeanne Marie is inside with the kids. She's gone off her nut, and says she's gonna kill 'em all."

"Whoa! Who's Jeanne Marie?"

"The other staffer. She tricked us and locked us out. The police are supposed to be on the way, but I'm afraid they'll be too late …" She was addressing empty air. Terra had swooped over to the school, her rocky armor crawling into place around her.

She zipped around the building, looking in the windows, and quickly located the deranged woman in the small cafeteria. Terra's hackles sprang erect immediately. It looked like she had taken apart a few cribs and arranged the slatted sides in a horizontal grid over a big pile of paper, cardboard boxes, and pieces of splintered wood (probably what was left of the cribs). A good dozen small children, the oldest of which couldn't have been more than four, were trussed up like roasting hens and laid out on top of the grid. Jeanne Marie, who appeared to be a fairly young blond woman, was off to one side, doing something with some bottles that Terra couldn't quite see.

The building was made of brick, so she simply unzipped the wall and floated through. The unzipping was very loud, though, and the crazy woman spun around, a large bottle in one hand. When she caught sight of Terra, she screamed, "Monsters! They've all got monsters! Monsters in their heads! They have to be killed! You have to help me! You whack off the heads, and I'll burn 'em!"

Terra was stunned for a second: Jeanne Marie closely resembled  _her!_  Certainly no more than five or ten years Terra's senior, her hair was the same color and about the same length, her eyes and face eerily similar. It was like looking into a fun-house mirror, except to Terra this was nothing like fun. Finally recognizing the object that Jeanne Marie held as a Molotov cocktail, Terra instantly positioned herself between the bomb and the children. "Lady, you need to put that down and head on outside. Some nice men will be along soon, and they'll help you, okay?"

"No! It'll be too late!" Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Oh, tricksy-tricksy! You're one of them!" She flicked a lighter that Terra hadn't noticed, lit the bomb, and threw it at the geomancer. The bottle broke against Terra's hastily-erected shield of Aloxyn, but the heat and the fire made it hard to see. A second bottle shattered on her before she got Jeanne Marie's position pinpointed, but then it was a very simple matter to wrap her up in some of the excess earthen material she'd brought in with her. Terra used what she had left then – primarily her armor – to contain the fire before the building became an inferno, and turned her attention to the children. She concentrated, bringing in some more earth from outside, and used it to pick up the kids and float them out through the hole she'd made. Some of them screamed bloody murder the whole time, but then they'd been doing that when she got there. The three women outside ran over and received the terrified children. Terra handed each of them a stone knife, and they got busy cutting the kids' bonds.

Terra trotted back over to the building and stuck her head in the hole in the wall. "Okay, ma'am, I think we can …" She gasped. Jeanne Marie was draining the dregs of one of the bottles, having somehow worked her left arm free. She'd just been able to reach the nearest Molotov cocktail, and drank the whole thing. Her eyes watering fiercely, she rasped out, "Hah! Tricked … you! Never get … me … alive." It was at that exact instant that Terra noticed the engagement ring she wore.

"No!" Terra sprang forward, jerking the woman with her and racing outside. The police had arrived and were spilling out of their squad cars, and she could just hear the wail of the EMTs approaching. She laid Jeanne Marie on the ground and yelled to the other women.

Nine minutes later she watched as the ambulance roared off toward the hospital. Jeanne Marie was on full life-support, and the grim looks on the Techs' faces hadn't given Terra much hope. She felt a tug on her hand and looked down into the deep brown eyes of a little boy. Kneeling, she said, "Yes?"

"A' 'ou a Tit'n?"

"… Yes." Then, more firmly, "Yes, I am. My name's Terra. What's yours?"

"Timmy. Tan 'ou fwy?"

"Well, yeah, sorta. I can make rocks fly and then ride 'em."

"Is Miz Dzeanne Mawie gon' be otay?"

Terra froze. She just stared at the boy, silent.

"Miz Tewwa, is Miz Dzeanne Mawie gon' be otay?"

The Titan slowly stood, called a quantity of earth to her, jumped on it, and sped off toward the hospital at nearly three hundred kilometers per hour. She beat the ambulance there by a good four minutes, and waited unobtrusively by the Emergency Room door.

When the ambulance pulled into the bay, it had its lights going, but not the siren. The doors opened, but not all that quickly, and the EMTs stepped down to the pavement rather than jumping out. They spoke to one another in subdued tones, but they didn't pull the gurney out, and they didn't rush it into the hospital. Rigidly, Terra walked over to them. One of them noticed her, his eyes widening. Standing a little straighter, he said, "Terra! Wow. You got here fast."

"How is she?"

"Ah … well … I'm sorry. She didn't make it. She drank nearly a liter of gasoline, and from the smell there were some other things in it, too. Um … technically, she was dead when we found her. Pumping her stomach didn't help. That stuff gets into your system really fast and …"

Terra wasn't listening to him anymore. She whispered, "Even when I get there in time. I'm useless."

"… Uh … Excuse me?"

"They die. Even when I get there in time, they die. They're always gonna die."

He nodded. "I know exactly how you feel. Every day I … um, miss? Terra?"

Paying him not the least bit of attention, she called her earthen platform to her, stepped on it, and rose straight up for a couple hundred meters before shooting off in the direction of Titan's Tower.

Terra had been locked in her room ever since. She refused to come out.

####

Two days ago, on Wednesday, Starfire was patrolling at the seashore. Since Terra was out of action for the time being, she had resolved to take the geomancer's place as primary protector of the city. Crime was still at a hundred-year lull, but the incident at the day-care center was just one of a string of disturbing examples of insane weirdness. Most of them hadn't been of the life-threatening variety that had so shaken Terra, but that didn't mean they could be ignored, either. Besides, this made the alien princess feel useful, and she desperately needed that just now.

The day had been peaceful, essentially unmarred by danger or ill will of any sort, and she was taking long, slow loops over the beach, stitching together the water and the land with her flight path. Many people waved to her, called her name, and the happy greetings lifted her sagging spirits.  _Perhaps I cannot do anything for dear Raven, but that does not mean I cannot do_ _ **anything**_ _!_  She was debating with herself the pros and cons of taking her patrol into the City proper when she noticed the speedboat.

He'd been out in the deep water, but now was aimed straight at the beach, and must have been doing at least a hundred klicks. Frowning, Starfire watched for only a second or so before deciding that this situation needed her attention. Leaving a glowing trail in the sky, she streaked down toward the boat.

When she got close enough to see the face of the man driving, her frown deepened. His eyes were wide and glazed, and his lips pulled back in a death's-head rictus, the tendons in his neck standing out in stark bas-relief. She matched the speed of his boat, and called to him. "Sir! Please stop your boat! You are approaching the area of designated swim!"

If he heard her, he gave no sign.

Starfire looked ahead. They'd be in the swimming zone in seconds, and it was packed with kids. Realizing that there was something seriously wrong with this man, she took matters into her own hands. Veering away from the boat for the space of several meters, she flew back around and hit it at the bow, knocking the boat around so that it pointed south, and ran parallel to the beach.

Her initial strike and the sudden change of course had knocked the man off his feet. When he staggered back up, he screamed, "Bitch! I'll kill you for that!"

Starfire glanced up at him and gasped. She was staring up the business end of the biggest long gun she'd ever seen. It was a double-barrel "four-bore" big game rifle, and was designed to take down elephants or cape buffalo with one shot. It would have hurt a lot, had it hit her. But before he could pull the trigger, she gave the bow another hard nudge. The man lost his balance, wind-milled his arms, and the heavy rifle dropped over the side.

His scream was long, and agonizing. He gripped the railing, staring wildly into the ocean, and then jumped in after the gun.

Instantly, Starfire pulled up to see if she could help him, but as soon as she did, the boat pulled a long turn back toward the way it had come. Her head swiveled between the man and the boat several times. The boat was once more aimed at the swimmers. The driver had on a life vest, and didn't seem to be in any real trouble. The boat would be back in the danger zone in not that many seconds. The driver was a good half-klick from shore, and wouldn't be going anywhere …

She streaked off after the boat. Landing in it, she took the wheel and steered it back toward open water, then killed the engine. Once she was sure it wouldn't soon drift into somewhere it shouldn't be, she zoomed back to where she'd left the driver.

He spotted her soon enough and screamed some more. "Bitch! Fuckin' sorry bitch! That was my grand-daddy's rifle!"

Floating some four meters above him, she stated, "Sir, I will now take you to the station of police. If you require further assistance in health of mind, they will be able …" Then she had to dodge. He had pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and was firing at her.

She streaked up to about thirty meters distant and watched him carefully, dodging his shots, and counting them. When the reports stopped, and she heard the weapon go 'click' instead, she dropped back down to where he was. He hurled invective at her the entire time, cursing with a creativity and vehemence that would have made the toughest Marine drill sergeant blush with envy.

"Sir, if I need to incapacitate you for transportation, I will do so. You do not need to be harming yourself in this way." And she floated to within a meter or so …

… and had to yank back when he took a swipe at her with a long, wicked knife. "No! You'll  _never_  take me! Stay back, you and your  _brain worms_!"

Star's face was the very picture of confusion. "Worms? What are 'brain worms'? I have not heard of these."

He screamed again. "Your face! I can see 'em in your face! You got the brain worms!" And then while a very puzzled Starfire put a tentative hand against her cheek, he quickly sliced through the straps on his floatation device, and then dove straight down.

"Sir! Sir! Please come back to the surface! You will not be able to breathe if you remain under the water!" She stayed there for a minute, calling to him, waiting for him to come back up, but he didn't. The water was very murky, and she didn't want to chance trying to find him when she couldn't see more than a meter or two. Just when she was about to take the plunge anyway, she noticed something float to the surface a couple dozen meters away, and flew over in relief. "Thank you for coming back up, sir! I will take you to the hospital now." But then she saw that he was floating face-down, and that the water around his head was tinged red. With growing unease, she got a grip on the back of his shirt and pulled him from the water.

He had cut his own throat.

Much later, after talking with the police and the coroner, Starfire called Cyborg and asked if he would come over to the beach and pick her up in the T-Car. He was glad to do it, but concerned as to why she didn't just fly. Her answer ("I do not feel like flying.") gave him seriously to pause. She was silent on the trip back to the Tower, and went directly to her room once they got there.

She'd been uncharacteristically silent at supper as well, and had retired early. Robin grilled Cyborg about it, gleaning all the metal man knew (which wasn't much) and then combing the city's records for the day until he found the incident in question.  _So. A suicide. Second in two days my team's been involved with. This is a pattern I don't like._ But he decided to give Star her space, and let her work it out at her own pace. Around midnight he wrapped up his paperwork, took a quick shower, and hit the sack.

####

About two in the morning, his door swooshed quietly open, which brought him instantly awake. As he was facing the door, he could just make out his girl-friend's silhouette as she stood there. "Star?" He sat up. "What's wrong?"

She stepped in and closed the door, tripping the lock mechanism, and then strode over to his bed. He could see that she had on a short robe or coat, and was barefoot.

"Star? You okay?"

Shrugging out of her covering, she stood before him, naked, and said, "We will do the mating now."

" _ **What?"**_

She pulled the covers aside and slid in next to him. "The mating. Also called the making of love. We will do this now."

It most  _assuredly_  wasn't as if he hadn't thought of this. A lot. Yes, they loved each other. They'd been open about that for close to a year, and the rest of the team thought they were deadly cute. But aside from some heavy petting, they'd maintained that final boundary of intimacy. They had discussed the possibility of marriage at some point down the road, and at the time she seemed quite content to wait. Tonight, though, her body was primed and hot, her need obvious and urgent. "Star … are you sure about this?"

Her eyes widened in trepidation. "Do you not love me, Richard?"

"Oh, Star!" He wrapped his arm around her waist, the touch of her soft skin sliding over muscles that felt like titanium cable sending electricity racing along his body. "You know I love you! I just thought …"

"Please, Richard, do not think. Only do." And she kissed him deeply.

His protests evaporated like snowflakes in the furnace of her desire. She was, after all, just about the hottest girl on the planet, human or otherwise; and he was, in certain respects, a very typical nineteen-year-old guy.

She made savage love to him until shortly before dawn, leaving him exhausted and barely coherent, and had made herself quite scarce ever since.

####

Yesterday had brought another pair of truly hideous and very public suicides. Robin had been early on the scene both times.

In the first instance, Robin was patrolling on his cycle when he got a call that a guy had broken into a chemical plant. It wasn't far, and he screeched to a halt at the plant entrance in under a minute. Several dozen workers were milling around in the parking lot, talking excitedly. Jerking off his helmet, he called to the security guard, who frantically motioned him over to the door.

"Robin! Thank God! Maybe you can get this guy down."

The Titan noticed that the guard's nametag read 'James Walters'. "Maybe. What's the op-sit?"

"That guy," and here he pointed at one of the dozen or so monitors in the security office, "used to work here. Name's Hyram Bonner. I thought we deactivated his badge, but he got in somehow. Cold-cocked my partner and broke into the secure area in the cracking facility."

Robin studied the image. The man was sitting at the top of one of the many reaction vessels in the secure section of the plant. He had opened a hatch and was sitting on its lip, and looked for all the world like he was singing. He asked about that.

"Yeah, he started with the  _Star Spangled Banner_ , then sang an old Marty Robbins ballad, and now he's doing a Vanessa Carlton song." The guard turned a knob and suddenly the man's tinny voice came in over a speaker. He turned it back down.

Robin glanced at him. "You listen to Vanessa Carlton? You don't look the type."

"My daughter listens to her. I just recognize it."

He nodded. "What's my quickest way back to where he is?"

"You go straight through the middle of the plant, and hang a right at …"

The door banged open. "At nowhere. I'm sorry, Robin, but I can't allow you in there."

Robin and the guard both jerked around and looked at the man who stood in the door. The guard gasped and said, "Mr. Belvedere!"

The Titan's eyes narrowed. "And you would be?"

"Macmillan Belvedere. I'm the president of Price-Tanra Chemicals. We have a program for handling things like this, and our special response team is on its way."

Robin digested that for a couple of seconds and turned to the guard. "Can you zoom in on Mr. Bonner?"

The guard fiddled with a couple of knobs, and the man's face jumped up to fill maybe a fifth of the screen. "Best I can do with this equipment."

"That's fine, sir." He turned back to Mr. Belvedere, who was also studying the monitor. He noticed at that point three black vehicles pulling up to the front of the building. The company president followed his gaze and nodded to himself. "And there they are."

A dozen men piled out of the cars, all wearing riot gear and carrying Plexiglas shields. Two of them had sniper rifles. Robin stared at them askance. "You intend to  _shoot him_?"

"Not at all. That is only a last resort, in case he is armed and offers to harm the team."

"Don't you think the Jump City SWAT team would be a better force to use here?"

"They aren't trained in how to deal with the various chemicals they might find in here. My team is. Besides, one of the snipers is former SWAT himself."

"Former? Why former? He get kicked off SWAT?"

"No. I pay better. He's got two kids in college."

Robin couldn't say much to that. Turning back to the monitor, he asked, "What sorts of chemicals are in that tower he's sitting on?"

Mr. Belvedere was watching in satisfaction as his response team entered the building, but he answered, distractedly, "Chemicals? Could be most anything. We make …" Then he turned and frowned. "Jim, where is he?"

"Section four, Mr. B."

The president turned pale. " _Exactly_ _ **where**_  in section four?"

The guard adjusted the view again, pulling out to get a look at the tower in question. "Looks like tower 4-B14."

Mr. Belvedere whispered, "Holy shit." He jumped over to the guard's console and grabbed the microphone. "Response team, this is Macmillan Belvedere! Pull out! There is a strong possibility of a serious fire, and maybe an explosion. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT enter the secure area! Do not fire on the trespasser!"

Robin, suddenly very apprehensive, asked, " _What_  is in that tower?"

Mr. Belvedere looked around at him, and Robin could see the sweat across his high forehead. "A very unstable asymmetric alkene. It can spontaneously combust in air if it gets hot enough."

"By 'very unstable', do you also mean 'very reactive'?"

"Very, very."

"Sir, you have to let me in there! I can get close enough to him to immobilize him and get him off the tower so that your men can go in and secure it!"

"I …" Robin could tell he was deeply torn. "I can't! It's company policy, and it's been decided at the highest levels! We even got approval from OSHA, the Jump City Safety Council, FEMA, and the FDA for our response plan!"

"So your official response is … no response at all? That's  _senseless!_ "

"It's the safest way in a situation like this. We can't endanger …"

"Sir, with all due respect, my training and abilities trump those precautions. I can have him contained and out of there in five minutes, tops."

"But I can't risk that you might get hurt!"

That exasperated Robin. "Sir, what do you think I do as a life-work? I put myself in harm's way; been doing it for seven years full-time. I'm very, very good at taking care of myself."

"You think I don't know that? But the 'who' isn't important. The plan says no one goes in, and I have to abide by that!"

Robin fumed. "I'd already be there by now if you'd just let me go to begin with, and the situation would be contained. He's just sitting there, singing!"

"Mr. B?" the guard called.

"What?"

"He's done stood up."

They crowded around the monitor while the guard turned the sound back up. It was true, Mr. Bonner was teetering on the edge of the hatch, his arms wide, belting out the last stanza of an old Elvis song. As soon as he finished, he pulled out a cigarette. Mr. Belvedere said, "Oh, God, no!"

Hyram Bonner took a few puffs, holding the lighter in one hand, then he gave a brief soliloquy about why the world was a bad place, and that it should be destroyed. Then he re-positioned himself so that he straddled the opening, flicked open the lighter – an old Zippo model, Robin noted – struck it to life, and dropped it into the hatch.

Robin and Mr. Belvedere both gasped. There was a roar, and then a blue-hot column of flame soared out of the hatch, instantly engulfing Mr. Bonner. Fortunately, the solvent fumes were significantly heavier than air, so oxygen infiltration into the tower was minimal and there was no explosion; but it made for a very impressive blow-torch. The column of fire was visible for nearly a kilometer in all directions. A few smoldering pieces of the former employee slid down the side of the tower and thumped onto the concrete. Mr. Belvedere turned away, green-faced.

Robin muttered, "So much for your policy," and stalked out to his motorcycle.

####

Robin's second suicide of the day was in the parking lot in front of a Big Box store, methodically going down the rows of cars and smashing in each rear passenger-side window with a small sledgehammer. He was obviously wearing a bomb, and carrying a dead-man switch in his off hand. Robin tried to talk him down, and barely managed to avoid serious injury when the man detonated the half-kilo of C4 he had strapped to his waist, reducing the nearest cars to smoking shrapnel. As it was, Robin would be sore for at least a couple of days, and wouldn't be using his left hand very well for a week. At least no one else had been hurt, and he tried to take some encouragement from that.

The day had, indeed, sucked in every important aspect. It wasn't going to get any better.

Today, Friday, he had spent the morning doing research, finding out as much as he could about the trends of the rising wave of insanity, and the results did little to comfort him. There were signs that this might just be a shadow of the enormity to come. He had typed up a report of his concerns and forwarded it to the Jump City police, the county sheriff, the fire department, all the local hospitals, and several other institutions that he thought might be able to use the information. He sent a short synopsis of his report to the Watchtower, flagged for the attention of Doctor Fate. Then he went looking for Starfire.

What he had  _really_  wanted was to talk about their relationship, to find out where she thought it was going. Her actions of two nights previous had been wildly out of character. Not that he minded, not in the least. But that made her behavior ever since all the more puzzling. He'd seen her exactly once, at supper on Thursday, and she'd said not five words the whole meal, then excused herself and flew off. She'd not been in the Tower since then, as far as he knew. She wouldn't answer her T-Com either, but seemed to still be carrying it. He tracked her movements automatically, just as the system tracked all of them. It was a reasonable precaution, and one that had saved their lives more than once.

She'd spent the morning out of town, up the coast at a NASA installation. He wondered about that a LOT. What could she possibly want with the government's space program? He hoped he'd get the chance to ask her soon. According to the computer, she was on her way back to the Tower now, and should arrive in the next twenty minutes. Glancing at the nearest clock, he figured she was planning to be here for lunch. That would be good. They could talk.

He was in the common room when she arrived, and he perked up when he spotted her lovely face. She had a smile on, the first one in over a week. He rose and met her halfway. "Star! I'm glad you're back!"

"As am I, my love."

His knees went slightly weak for just an instant when he heard that. She'd never called him that before. He took it as an  _excellent_  sign. "Okay … listen, Star, can we talk? I've been wanting to talk about … well, about  _ **us**_ , ever since Wednesday night, and you've been kind of not-here."

"I am sorry, dear Richard." She stepped forward and embraced him gently, which he returned enthusiastically. "I have been making preparations for travel."

That shot a cold chill down his back. He leaned away from her, cocked an eyebrow in that peculiar fashion of his, and said, "Travel? Travel to where?"

"To Tamaran."

The chill firmed up into an Arctic blizzard. He had to drag his next breath in against its will. "Tamaran? But … I thought your sister …"

"Yes. I am exile, by her decree as the planet ruler."

"But … Star! Why?"

"I am … I have been … unwell." She turned from him and took a couple of steps, crossing her arms. "I have been shown to be … ineffective … in my role as a Titan."

"Ineffective? How in the world do you come to  _that_  conclu…"

"I have spent much time in thought over this. It is not a good thing for a Tamaranian to demonstrate weakness, and that is true especially for one of royal blood." Her voice was soft, but very determined. "I have found a way in which I can be useful." She turned back to face him. "On Tamaran there is a scientist. He is an expert in Transition Events. I will go there and find him, and bring him back here. Thus, he may aid us in finding dear Raven and restoring her to her place with us."

Robin's throat was trying to cut off his air. His arms felt like lead. "But … didn't Komand'r say … if you came back, you were … to be …"

"Yes, Richard." She came back over to him, took his face in her two hands, and kissed him softly. "That is what she said. But she need not discover that I am there. She has much work to do as ruler. She is planning a voyage very soon to the star system of one of our oldest allies. It is not likely that she will be on Tamaran while I am there in my search." Glancing away from him and sighing, she said, "My biggest problem will be staying hidden from those who wish to place  _ **me**_  on the throne in her stead."

Robin couldn't dredge up anything coherent to say. His blood felt thick, his mind fuzzy.

"I do not wish to challenge her. Komand'r is not … doing a  _ **bad**_  job as Queen of Tamaran." She nibbled on her lower lip briefly. "The planet is prosperous enough, the people happy enough, and she did restore our military position in that sector."

"But … Star … if they find you …"

"No one will find me, my love." She kissed him again, then backed away. "I leave now to fly up to the Watchtower. In six hours a ship is leaving to travel to Deccom. From there I will take another ship directly to Tamaran. The trip is not long, no more than two or three weeks. Tamaran is, after all, not even three hundred light years away. I should be back in a month, surely only six weeks at the most."

"… Star? Please!"

"I am sorry. You must understand. I cannot …  _live_  with myself … if I do not do this for our dear friend, Raven. Everyone is doing something, everyone is so intense, so busy being useful. I must be useful as well." She floated over to the door, gave him a last hopeful look, and left.

####

And now she was gone. Robin glanced at his chronometer, noting the time. The star cruiser would be pulling away from the Watchtower in less than two minutes. He closed his eyes and whispered, "God, I know we don't talk much. I've got my job to do, and you've got yours. But if you don't mind … if you can spare the time … please, please, please bring her back. She's the best, sweetest, most noble creature you ever made. My life is hers. I can't make it without her." He drew several deep breaths, and opened his still-dry eyes, watching as the seconds ticked by. The departure time came and went. The rain still fell outside, a sodden veil over his world.

He stood there, not really seeing it, until night claimed the land.


	11. Evolution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Good grief. I admitted I didn't own the Titans. You'd think that would be enough for them. Now they want me to make it clear that I have no connection AT ALL to DC or any of its properties. So, I don't. Zilch. Zip. Nada. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 11_

…  _elsewhere …_

Rachel had been awake for a little while, but hadn't moved yet. Her head pillowed on Jinx's chest, she watched the slow rise and fall with a contemplative relish. Jinx had a dancer's build, lean and tight; her breasts were high, firm, and compact, the nipples peaked a little even when relaxed. Rachel thought they were the most adorable such items ever.  _My Jinx. My lovely, silly, sarcastic little cotton-candy doll._ Reaching up to the taller girl's neck, she gently probed until she found an artery, laying soft fingers across the rhythmically pulsing spot. Sighing in happiness, she closed her eyes again.

Some half-a-minute later, Jinx said, "Mind if I ask what you're doing?"

Rachel looked up, meeting the pink cat-eyes with a smile. "Hello, Jinx."

Jinx had never realized what a beautiful name she had until she started hearing it on Rachel's tongue. "D'you know that you've got a _really_  musical voice?"

"No. I never really had occasion to find out before."

"Oh. Right. That whole suppressed-emotions thing?"

"Right."

Jinx propped herself up on one elbow; Rachel scooted just a shade closer so she could still snuggle against her. "That reminds me, Rae. I wanted to ask you about that."

"About what?"

"Well … rumor was that you couldn't just let go. You had good reasons for keeping your emotions on a short leash. Something about losing control of your power or some such."

"Ah. That's true, as far as it goes. My power is tied to my emotional state, and I  _could_  lose control over it if I get too emotional." Her smile grew. "That's how it  _used_  to be. And it wasn't just that I'd lose control. See, my soul-self …"

"That's that shadow-thingy, right?"

Rachel raised a hand and spread her fingers wide. A lightless fog enveloped them, and tendrils spun slowly off, wreathing her arm. Jinx eyed the darkness with slight alarm. "This is my soul-self. You ran afoul of it on several occasions."

"Oh,  _hells_ , yes. Never been so damn cold in my life."

"I'm half demon, Jinx." The blackness sucked quickly back into her skin, and she met the pink eyes with a frank gaze. "The reason that my father sired me was so that I could be a portal into this universe. My soul-self can become an opening into the Eighth Hell. If I lose control of it."

Jinx just blinked at her. "… Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'. Can you see why I wasn't too concerned about the odd bit of minor property damage?"

"Uh-huh."

"I tend to be rather hard on electronics. Cyborg always stocks several magnetrons at the Tower because I keep blowing up the microwave."

Jinx giggled and then quickly shut it off, composing her face into neutral lines. "I see. So then are you sayin' that your face will stop a watch?"

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." Her lips quirked in a smile. "But the problem was that I couldn't allow myself to feel. If my emotions –  _any_  emotions – got too intense, my soul-self would start to break free. It needed to be contained, and the only way I knew how to do that was not to  _feel_  anything. The monks of Azarath raised me and …"

"Who?"

"Uh … Okay, my mother, um, got herself into a bad situation. She was used by this demon-worshiping cult to summon Trigon – that's my father – and he impregnated her with me."

"Oh. So it wasn't, like, voluntary?"

Rachel tossed her head back, rolling her eyes with a quick, "Hah!"

"Right. Okay, so who's … Azathar?"

"Azarath. They were a monastic order. They knew about Trigon and knew what I was and what I was capable of. They were pretty sure that killing me would just release the portal, so I was kept alive and …"

"Whoa! Hold on! They were actually considering  _killing_  an innocent  _baby?_ "

"… You, ah, need to understand something. When the choice is between the death of one child and the destruction of an entire dimension, it doesn't really present as a  _choice_ , as such. And besides, I was half demon. Not exactly innocent."

"Well … um … yeah, okay … I guess." She frowned darkly and then said, "But still! I mean, how heartless can you get? Who would be able to kill a cute little, gurgling newborn?"

"I may have been cute, but there wasn't much gurgling going on. I was aware and conscious of my surroundings practically from birth. I started talking at six weeks, and walked at nine."

"… You're shitting me."

"Half demon, remember? Demons are born, if you want to call it that, fully sentient. If anything, I had some developmental delays due to my human side."

"Wow. I bet  _you_  did okay in school!"

"I never had any 'school' in the sense you mean it. My instruction consisted of techniques in self-control and meditation, the containment and later the use of my soul-self, and some basic training in magic. I only know as much math as I do because it is  _useful_  to know it when performing certain spells. They weren't interested in making me well-rounded; they wanted me to be  _safe_. Everything I was taught – and I mean  _everything_  – was geared toward control. I had to suppress my emotion, learn not to  _feel_  anything. I had to learn even  _ **not to regret**_  not feeling anything. It was the only way I could survive, and I fear it may have … twisted me. A little."

Jinx's lower lip started trembling. She reached down and gathered Rachel close, laying her cheek against the other girl's hair. "And I was so mean to you! I'm so sorry!"

"Mean to me?"

"Every time we fought. I'd taunt you and …"

Rachel tapped her on the nose. "Shh. None of that now. What's past is past." She reached down and clasped Jinx's hand, bringing it up for a kiss. "What's important is what's happening now."

Jinx blinked away her tears and gave Rachel a watery smile. "You're too perfect, you know that?"

"Am not."

"Are, too. I can't get over … I mean, how could you …"

"There sure is a lot of confusion going on in that cute little pink head."

"You're telling me!"

"Anything I can clear up?"

Jinx nibbled her lip for a moment and then scooted them both up until they were leaning against the side of a near hummock. It sort of shifted a little, forming slightly to their bodies, and Jinx gave it a look. Then she shrugged and said, "Thanks."

Both girls were washed briefly by a gentle wave of love that left them sighing.

"… Wow." Jinx gave Rachel a squeeze and said, "I really, really like it here."

"So do I." She leaned in close, insinuated her face into Jinx's hair, and took a long sniff. "Particularly … right … here."

"Rae …"

"Mmhmm?"

"How can you love me?"

Rachel sighed in mild exasperation. "Jinx, why …"

"No, no, that's not what I mean. Please don't think I think you don't, okay? I'm not sayin' that. I just … don't really understand how you _can_."

"Why not?"

"We started to get into this earlier, before we fell asleep. Seriously, a few days ago we were at each other's throats, and now … now I … you …"

"You're over-thinking this. Take a deep breath and stop and calm down."

Jinx did. "Okay. Thanks. That helped." She took another quick breath. "See,  _ **now**_  is a lot different from  _ **then**_ , and  _ **then**_  wasn't too long ago.  _ **Now**_ , I can't … Rae, I can't imagine  _being_  anywhere else but here, or  _with_  anyone else but you. And I know, 'cuz I can feel it  _here_  …" she touched her chest over her heart, and then put a finger to her forehead, "… and  _here_ , that you feel the same." A sense of wonder permeated her voice. "I know it. I know it the same way I know a rock will fall if I drop it. But what I don't understand is the  _how_  and the _why_."

"Why does anyone fall in love? There are so many qualities about you that are admirable. I recognized those qualities practically from our first encounter. Jinx, I have  _ **admired**_  you for years. I just wasn't free to  _ **love**_  you the way I wanted to." Jinx's expression telegraphed her incredulity so remarkably well that Rachel had to laugh. She tousled the fluffy, pink hair and said, "What, you don't believe me?"

"You  _ **admired**_  me? While I was trying to kick your butt, and sometimes succeeding?"

"Well, I'm not going to imply that what you did wasn't wrong." She thought about her answer while staring at the object of her affections. "But Jinx, listen … you may have been a thief, but you were always an  _honest_  thief. Very straightforward in your motives, and – I comprehend now – simply carrying out the various missions you'd been given in the beginning, when you were with the H.I.V.E., and then trying to keep body and soul together during later times."

Jinx snorted. "Not a great track record on that last one, there, Rae. We were hungry more often than I like to remember."

"Did no one ever suggest that you try a different line of work?"

"Like what? All we were good at was stealing and busting heads."

"I think your team would have made terrific mercenaries. Seriously, I never  _could_  figure out why you didn't just skip town and hire yourselves out. Could've made a bundle."

The pink eyes widened; her mouth dropped open and worked up and down a few times.

"Or you could have hired out your services as bodyguards to corporate bigwigs; they'd eat that up. Or you could have done what I did when I organized the Titans: pick a likely city and offer to set yourselves up as its protectors. Jump City pays all the Titans' bills, and you know how much Vic and Gar eat. Or you …"

Jinx clamped her lips together and held up a hand. "Okay. Stop. Please. That's enough. I now  _ **officially**_  feel like the biggest idiot in the history of Western Civilization."

Raven giggled.

Pointing a slim finger at Rachel's nose, Jinx said, "That's another thing! You just said, not five minutes ago, that you had to learn how not to feel anything. Yet here you are, drizzling emotion all over me like icing on a fresh doughnut, and giggling like a fan-girl at an anime convention. Are you just putting up a front?"

"You know better than that."

"Then what's the deal?"

"The deal, Dear Heart, is this place." She rolled gracefully to her feet and held her arms wide. "I thought for nineteen years that the only way I could keep things under control was through repression. But she showed me another way." She floated up about half a meter. Her soul-self flowed out then, pooling around her feet and gradually building up until it covered her to her waist. It split into two spiraling columns and climbed higher, to meet over her head. Then it bulged out some on both sides, firming up into a classic valentine's heart shape, with her head and torso a cameo in the center. Jinx watched, fascinated. Then Rachel floated out of it, leaving it in place behind her. "See, the way I always understood it before, my soul-self had to be contained in my physical form. That's what the monks of Azarath taught me, and since I could make it work  _that_  way I had no reason to think it could be done any  _other_  way."

"And now you're saying it can?"

"Absolutely." She pointed at the big, shadowy heart. "That's my soul-self. The whole thing. She taught me how to … um, I guess a reasonable analogy would be 'sew it up'. Before, it was always struggling to break free, to get out of my body and seep into the rest of reality and set itself up as a portal. That, after all, is what it was designed to do. But now, working with her, I figured out how to redirect its boundaries inward. It's fully self-contained now, and it no longer tries to escape. There's a feeling of contentment, of completeness that was never there before. And it's not necessary that it stay inside me, and since I've separated it from my spirit, we both experience a level of freedom we've never known before."

"Rae? You're talking about it like it's a different … being."

"In many respects it is. Oh, I realize that in the final analysis it's really nothing more than one aspect of  _my_  being, but the internal struggle has been going on so long that the soul-self has taken on something of a life of its own."

"And … you're not afraid it'll … I dunno, go off on its own and create havoc somewhere?"

"No. It would have, had I given it this much leeway before. But now it has boundaries. It knows where all of it is." She frowned and gave a frustrated  _huff_. "It's really difficult to put into words. The soul-self isn't searching for anything anymore. It has reached a sort of nirvana, a balance that it needed and was lacking." Floating back over to the smoky heart, she extended her hand and the shadow quickly flowed into her. Jinx could swear she heard a small, satisfied sigh as it disappeared. "And as an added perk, this makes it easier for me to use. I don't have to coerce it into forming a shield, or telekinetically lifting something, or forming a ram when I need something pounded. It responds almost eagerly now."

"That's pretty sweet."

Rachel turned and gave her a brilliant smile that made quick fire run all over her. "No, Dear.  _You_  are pretty sweet. Pretty  _and_  sweet."

A furious blush raced across her face, and Jinx felt a silly and quite involuntary smile grow there. "You know … I never really thought of myself as 'pretty'. I'm too lean – too skinny, really – to be …"

"Oh, hush." Rachel's smile grew mischievous. "I  _say_  you're pretty, and that means you  _are_  pretty."

Her features turning, if possible, even redder, Jinx stammered out, "S-so you're the qu-queen of reality now? What you say goes?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Then, taking pity on the poor, flame-faced girl, Rachel laughed and bounded over to her, kneeling in front of her. "I'm not picking on you, Hon. Well, not much. But in all honesty, you're selling yourself short." She ran a soft hand down the length of Jinx's arm, drawing a subdued shiver from the metahuman. "You aren't skinny. You're svelte."

"Oh, please!"

"For real. Your muscle development is much too good to be called skinny. And you are unfailingly graceful." She chuckled. "As many times as you succeeded in jumping out of my grasp when we fought, how could you think otherwise?"

"I'm not winning this argument, am I?"

"Nope."

She grinned. "Okay. Then I guess there's only one thing left I can do."

"Really? What's that?"

She jumped on Rachel, knocking the smaller girl onto her back with a happy shriek. "Tickle time!"

The tickling only lasted a few seconds, though. A net of shadow appeared under her and lifted her off of her helplessly laughing target.

"Hey! No fair!"

It took Rachel a moment to get her breathing under control. She rolled over and stood next to her captive, smirking and wagging a finger back and forth. "Talk about fair! You shouldn't start what you can't finish." Cocking her head from one side to the other, she observed, "You know, trussed up like you are, your flanks are completely exposed." A slim hand reached over and menaced Jinx's shortribs.

"EEEEEEEE! Stoppit!  _Don't!_  Lemme  _go!"_

Rachel's hand stopped, but Jinx could feel the slight heat from her, she was so close. "Let you go? No, I don't think so. I think you should get out of that on your own." And so saying, she backed off a few steps and assumed the lotus position.

"Whaddaya mean, do it on my own? I can't bust out of this!"

"Oh, really? You mean, just like you can't fly, either?"

"What … how do … waitaminnit! That wasn't  _me_  flying, that was  _her_ _ **letting**_  me! You said so yourself!"

"And do you know  _ **how**_  she let you? Precisely?"

"… uhhh … not, um …" Her brows drew together. "Now that you mention it … no."

"You will please notice I said at the time that she was  _letting_  you fly. Not  _making_  you fly or  _helping_  you fly or anything like that."

"So what's the diff?"

"Jinx, tell me about your hex energy."

"This is uncomfortable, Rae!"

"Then you should start working on getting out of it. Tell me about your hex energy."

"I dunno! What about it?"

"What is it, exactly?"

"It alters probability on a local level. It makes things go wrong, or break, or dissolve, or shatter. It busts 'em up." She squirmed a little. "But I don't want to throw a hex at  _you!"_

"Neither do I want you to."

"So? Let me go!"

"You can get out by yourself."

" _ **How?"**_

"Jinx, listen to what you're saying! You hex energy alters probability. The only reason that you use it simply to break things is that you've never tried using it any other way."

"… What?"

"You flew. By yourself. How do think that happened?"

"I  _wasn't_  by myself! You were holding my hand and helping me!"

"Holding your hand, yes … helping you, no. You flew.  _You_ , Jinx. You utilized your hex energy to propel yourself. You  _'altered probability locally'_  and you flew."

"… Serious?"

"Dead serious. And you can do the same thing now. What needs to happen to get you out of that net?"

"You need to make it go away."

"Ah, but you see, that's not going to happen. The soul-self is separate now. It likes you. It wants to huuuuuuug you! I'm not making it do anything right now. But you can."

" _But I don't_ _ **know**_ _how I flew!"_ Her voice was a plaintive cry.

"And that's the secret. It's not as difficult as the old 'don't think of a blue camel' shtick, but all you have to do is realize that you can do this, and then want to."

"That's stupid! Don't you think I would've figured that out before now if that's the way it worked?"

"But you never tried, did you?"

"No, because … because … oh, just because! Okay?"

"Nope. Not okay. You can do this. Think about the net."

"I can't barely think about anything else! Stupid thing is tight!"

"Would you like it to be looser?"

"Don't ask stupid questions!"

"Then make it happen."

"I. Don't. Know. How. Rachel!"

"Concentrate on the substance of the net. Feel it. I  _know_  you've got at least enough training in basic magic to be able to trace down ley lines. This isn't that different. Feel the net. Trace the net."

Doing her best to bank her rising frustration, Jinx let the hex energy flow within her, then directed it at the adamantine strands of shadow.  _"Feel the net. Trace the net." For fuck's sake, Raven! Or Rachel or whatever. How am I supposed to …_

The pink flux made hesitant contact with the net. Jinx startled and gasped, her eyes growing round. She  _ **could**_  feel it! With mounting excitement, she directed her hex energy along one of the strands, enveloped it, and … squeezed. The line of blackness whiffed into vapor and vanished. Like a matrix of zippers, the rest of them fell apart and disappeared, and Jinx was shortly dumped on the ground.

She didn't even have time to get herself righted before she was caught in a joyous hug. "You  _did_  it! You  _did_  it! You  _did_  it!" Rachel kissed her, upside-down as she was, which did little to help her balance. "I knew you could! She said you were ready!" And she kissed her again, lingering a bit this time.

Jinx finally got herself – between increasingly passionate kisses – turned around right, and when she could she took Rachel in her arms. Gasping for air at one point, she said, "I did, didn't I? Yay, me!"

Rachel was staring at her, smiling at her, love and admiration and pride holding a pitched battle for preeminence on her face. "You are so much more than you know. So much more than anyone has ever thought." Pulling her as close as she could, she laid her cheek against Jinx's neck. "My Jinx."

"… Am I your Jinx? Like, for good?"

"As it is within my power, we shall never be parted. This I swear."

"Whoa. Don't need to go all formal on me. I just … y'know … wondered."

Rachel pulled back far enough to meet those incredible, cat-like eyes. "That's not all you're wondering, girl."

Jinx could feel how hard her nipples were, and knew that what Rachel said was as true as truth gets. She had the grace to blush. "You blame me? I'm being hugged to death by an insanely hot girl who just declared her love to me forever. How d'ya think I ought to react?"

"About like you are." She let her gaze wander downward. "You are so beautiful."

"Yeah, right."

"Well, you're beautiful to me. And my opinion is the only one I care about, where that's concerned." She raised a hand and gently cupped Jinx's left breast, making the girl draw a hissed breath. An exploratory thumb gently brushed across the areola just under the nipple, and was rewarded with an inarticulate squeak.

"Damn. Damn, Rae." She grabbed Rachel's wrist with a shaky hand. "You're gonna make me come right here and now."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Jinx gave her a look as if she'd grown a second head. "Don't be playin' now, Rae! I mean … if you wanna go ahead … well sign me up. I just … we only just …"

Rachel laid a finger across her lips. "I would love to. But you'll have to show me how."

A couple of deliberate blinks followed that statement. "Show you how what?"

"How to make love. Oh, I know the theory and all, but I lack experience."

"… Wait … You mean … You mean you've never done this with a girl before?"

"I've never done it before, period. I'm a virgin."

 _Holy Fucking Shit On A Crutch!_ Jinx cleared her throat. "Oh. Wow. Uh … wow. Okay. I've never, ah, been with a virgin before."

Rachel dimpled, which Jinx thought was ungodly cute. "Then I guess you have a lot to teach me."

"… I guess so."

"No time like the present."


	12. Interloper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (The Titans are not "mine"; their canon is not "mine"; their property, real or imagined, is not "mine". Somebody please help me figure out what is mine! -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 12_

_Earth … late June … ten weeks after the Transition Event …_

The Watchtower: the name says it all.

This huge habitat in orbit around Earth is more than just a weapons platform, although it certainly is that. High-tech munitions from no fewer than sixteen worlds make it one of the more formidable examples of the type currently deployed. Its polished skin of hyperalloy – the same metal that makes up so many of Cyborg's parts – makes it impregnable for all practical definitions of the word. It bears the scars of several battles from which it emerged more or less victorious – more so than those who came up against it, at any rate.

It is more than just a communications hub, though it serves that function admirably. A vast array of FTL transponders and similar equipment allow those who live and work here to contact their counterparts throughout this quadrant of the galaxy whenever they wish. Beyond that, all public broadcast venues on the planet – and quite a few that are not-so-public – are monitored from here.

To top all that, though, the Watchtower is staffed – operated and maintained – by members of the Justice League. That means that what the space station "protects" is frequently more powerful than the station itself, as several would-be invaders found out to their sorrow.

So the team currently on duty there – Batman, Wonder Woman, the Elongated Man, and the Flash – may be excused somewhat for their oversight. Had J'onn J'onzz been present, things might have worked out differently. But he wasn't. And they didn't. With no telepath on board at the time, they had to rely solely on their eyes and their instruments to tell them of any shady dealings.

They just weren't up to the task.

In the first place, the spy's ship was tiny, no more than three meters in its longest dimension. That offered no discomfort to the spy, since he was not quite a meter tall himself. Also, it was built of materials that made it inherently undetectable in the electromagnetic spectrum, and coated with a substance that did not reflect light. Nestled, as it was, up under the exhaust port of an attitude jet, it was out of sight and off the radar. The spy was able to set up shop and get up-close and personal in his work.

He'd been sent there since shortly after the Transition Event. His master knew that the Justice League would be heavily involved in so novel a happening, and would happily do all the research for him. His master knew a very great deal about them, much more than they knew of him; but he always wanted more information, and this was a cheap way to get it. He didn't calculate that the spy would need to be there very long, and as it turned out, he was correct.

The spy now knew the exact time the T-E had occurred, its duration, its localized effects, its probable power requirements, and a good idea of its point of origin. That the Justice Leaguers didn't put much stock in some of the data didn't bother him. He knew what his master wanted, and he was going to get it, and if the self-styled "heroes" of Earth wanted simply to ignore what could be the key to galactic domination, that just made his job a little easier.

It was with a deep sense of accomplishment that the spy, after almost six weeks of successful skulking, released his ship's grip on the Watchtower's hull and drifted slowly and silently away. Four days later, when he was nearly a million kilometers from Earth and beyond most of the station's sensors, he applied power to his drive, created an impossible bubble of impossibly-curved space-time around his ship, and blasted back toward Apokolips at an equivalent speed of almost six parsecs per day.

 

__


	13. Getting to Know You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I don't own the Titans; never did; never will. Like you didn't know that. Sheesh. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 13_

…  _elsewhere …_

Rachel dimpled, which Jinx thought was ungodly cute. "Then I guess you have a lot to teach me."

"… I guess so."

"No time like the present."

Jinx didn't even  _try_  to stop the wide, goofy grin that took over her face. She reached for Rachel's hand and then looked around for a suitable hummock. Pulling her along, they walked a few dozen steps to a low, flat mound about two meters across. Jinx sat and patted the moss-like covering beside her. "Sit ye doon, lass."

Rachel giggled. "You have an Irish background? That where you get that hair?"

"Hush and c'm'ere." She pulled the dark-haired girl down next to her and had her stretch out to full length. Then she just paused and drank in the sight. "God, you're gorgeous. D'you have even a  _clue_  how hot you are?"

"Doesn't matter. I'm not looking for a date."

"Heh. Damn straight." She snapped her fingers. "One other thing. You said the soul-self could be, like, parked somewhere, right? Outside your body?"

"Uh … yeah. I can. Why, you think I should?"

"I think I don't want it trying to tear my head off while you're in the middle of an orgasm."

"Really? Huh. It never occurred to me that it might be an issue. All the books said that an orgasm was a  _pleasant_  experience. Why would …"

Jinx patted her cheek. "Just trust me on this, 'k?"

"Very well." She concentrated, and the dark, smoky tendrils reeled off her fingertips, coalescing in about a minute into a rough sphere. She closed her eyes for a moment, her lips moving, and then nodded. "Okay, she says I can leave it over there." And the sphere rolled several meters away to a slight depression, where it seemed to settle in comfortably. "Now, where were we?"

Jinx placed a hand gently on the smooth flesh of Rachel's belly, leaving it there for several seconds to warm, then started moving it in slow circles. She chuckled, "This is so … different. You can't tell me what you  _like_  because you don't know  _yourself."_

"So experiment. I'm sure I'll like whatever you do."

"I guess we'll find out." She got on her knees beside Rachel so that she could use both hands, and started very gently massaging her belly, eliciting a soft sigh. "You tell me  _right then_  if anything doesn't feel good, 'k?"

"Mmmmm."

Gradually, Jinx moved upward, first just pushing lightly on the underside of her breasts, moving them a little, back and forth, up and down. "You know these are magnificent, right?"

"Mm … feels … nice."

_Got_ _that_ _right!_   Jinx worked them a bit more firmly. Rachel's eyes closed, her lips parting. The areolas were tightly clenched, the nipples very stiff. She bent over and breathed gently on the left one; instantly Rachel gasped and jerked. Jinx stopped and said, "You okay?"

"… Do that again."

The grin was back, full force. "Okey-dokey!" She divided her time equally between them then, and in a minute or two Rachel was panting hard. "Having fun yet?"

"By Azar, this is better than anything I  _imagined_  in my research! I never knew my … my  _body_  could …  _damn_. You're a  _genius!"_

_You ain't seen nothin' yet, kid._  "I'm happy you think so." She bent then and ran the tip of her tongue over one nipple.

Rachel's head flew up off the hummock.  _"Aaaiihh!"_

Jinx affected a very innocent expression, placing her hands primly on her thighs. "Yes? May I help you?"

" _What_  … was  _ **that?"**_

For an answer Jinx gave her lips a sultry lick.

Rachel was having a hard time catching her breath. "Why does … Jinx, my … belly feels … so hot. What's …"

"Oh, poor baby! Don't you fret, honey-chile, Auntie Jinx'll fix you right up."

The dark head fell back onto the moss. "… Okay. You know best."

"You bet I do." She placed a hand over each breast, exerting light pressure, and moved them in tight circles. Rachel nearly purred. Then she let her left hand slip off and trail lightly down Rachel's belly, pausing to lazily circle her navel a few times, before brushing carefully across the tips of the short, purple fuzz topping her womanhood. Rachel made a few inarticulate noises. Jinx slowly and carefully applied a bit of pressure to Rachel's aching mound, and …

The climax took her hard, a long moan draining from her throat, her hips bucking to press as much as possible against Jinx's skillful hand. Then it eased off; her head was light, her face flushed, her limbs loose and barely in control. "… God … knows … damn … Jinx … holy …"

"That wasn't bad."

Rachel stared at her, panting. "… Not …  _bad?_   What … the  _hell_ …"

"Oh, sweetie, we're just getting started."

Rachel curled up into a ball, then extended one sumptuous leg and flexed her toes. "I never … had … any idea … oh, god, my feet are on fire!"

"Well, we can't have that, now can we?" Jinx moved down and captured the wayward foot, massaging the sole and the instep gently. "Lord in heaven, Rae, even your  _feet_  are glorious. Just look at these perfect toes."

Soft moaning was her only answer.

Jinx spent a few minutes working the circulation back down to normal, and Rachel had calmed somewhat. She looked down at the pink head, bent lovingly over her feet, and said, "I always wondered why people made such a big deal out of sex. Now I know."

"In the first place, no you don't; not yet, anyway. And in the second place, that wasn't sex."

"… Huh?"

"It wasn't sex. Or, I guess I should say, it wasn't  _ **just**_  sex. It was lovemaking." She giggled. "Damn good lovemaking, if I do say so."

"Word."

Jinx leaned back, laughing fully. "What?  _'Word'_  Are you shitting me? Where'd you pick that up?"

Rachel blushed prettily. "Um … from Terra? Is it … wrong?"

"Hearing you talk like  _that_  is wrong on more levels than I like to think about."

She looked very nonplussed. "Well, I'm sorry."

"Oh, Honey, don't worry. It's not bad or anything, really. It's just … unexpected. Really,  _really_  unexpected. You're, like, on the other end of the  _spectrum_  from the whole 'gansta' thing that came from." She chuckled. "Next thing I know, you're gonna break out in a rap."

"… A what?"

"Yes!  _There_  ya go!  _That's_  my Rachel!"

"Seriously, what's a rap?"

"It's … a kind of … well, it isn't music, exactly. It's not singing. More like a rhythmic chant set to heavy percussion. Very popular in some circles, but, Dear Heart, not the circles you travel in."

"Oh."

"And we got kind of off-topic." She turned her attention back to Rachel's feet, then worked up to her ankles, then calves.

"Oh,  _Honey_ , that feels good!"

"That's the idea." She lightly rubbed the outsides of her knees, then gently brushed her fingers along the hollows beneath them.

Rachel sighed in pleasure. "How are you doing that?"

"I'm not doing anything that your body isn't already programmed to appreciate."

The dark girl smiled happily. " _Nice_  body.  _Good_  body."

"Oh, yes, it is." She moved then to Rachel's thighs, gently massaging and pushing and coaxing until her legs were parted at about a sixty-degree angle. Then she trailed the tips of her fingernails up the incredibly soft inner surfaces, leaving the skin just before reaching the apex. As her finger brushed the pubic hair again, Rachel gasped.

"You doin' okay?"

"… Oh … god … you're going to … do it again … aren't you?"

"I sure am."

"I think I might die if you do."

"Hah! That's what the French call it: the Little Death. But no fear, Sweetie. You'll live. You'll live and love it!"

"Uhhnnnnhh …"

Jinx placed her fingers lightly on either side of the top of Rachel's womanhood, and traced the outer contours slowly down to the bottom of her vulva. Then she gently gripped the labia and pulled them slightly apart, breathing hot breath across the opening.

Rachel moaned and thrashed her arms, her head flopping back and forth in near-mindless ecstasy.

The inside of the labia carried a slight pink flush showing through the even, light gray. Jinx ran her thumbs evenly along that surface, bringing a stuttering hiss from her partner. She could see the clitoris standing stiffly at the upper end. One of Rachel's feet was jerking spasmodically in time with the motion of Jinx's thumbs; both her hands had a death-grip on the moss to either side. With a deep sense of pleasure at the reactions she was getting from Rachel, the pink-haired girl leaned forward and carefully placed her lips on the tiny bulb …

The second climax lasted  _considerably_  longer than the first one. Jinx was a  _tiny_  bit afraid that Rachel was going to hurt herself, she beat the hummock so hard, but finally, with a ragged gasp, she lay still. Her eyes were half-open, her mouth slack, her breath shallow and rapid. Her left arm flopped over onto her belly, then off again, twice. She managed to slur out, "Y'r gonna kill me."

"No, Sweetie, I'm not. But afterglow makes you even more beautiful than before, and I didn't think that was possible."

Jinx left her alone for a couple of minutes so she could call her brain back from wherever it jumped off to. Rachel rolled ponderously onto her side, staring at Jinx in rapt adoration. "As I said. Genius."

"Aw, shucks. T'weren't nothin'."

"Oh, you said a mouthful. That was very definitely  _not_  'nothing'." She drew several long, satisfied breaths and gave her head a bit of a shake. "I had no idea. Not even a glimmer." Those glorious purple eyes sought Jinx's. "It was good that you thought to have me put the soul-self elsewhere."

"Thought it would be."

Another sigh. "Dam … nation. Well. This is … just perfect. So good. So …"

"Yes. It is, isn't it?"

"I would've blown up half the city."

Jinx leaned back in a hearty laugh. "Yeah, prob'ly. Good thing you never had sex before, huh?"

"It's a  _good_  thing I'm having sex  _now_ , Honey, a  _ **very**_ _good thing."_

"I agree. You ready for round three?"

A look of marvel tracked across her face. "You know … I think I am. That's amazing! I'm … oh, what's the word? Not just ready, but …"

"Horny?"

"Huh?"

"That's what it's called when you are  _really_  in the mood for some lovin'."

"Horny, huh?" Rachel rolled the word around on her tongue. "Yeah, okay. I'll go with that." Giving a small giggle, she said, "You'd think after the physical and emotional Krakatoa you just put me through, I'd be exhausted … but I'm not! Not at all." She squeezed her legs together and grinned crookedly at the sensations it brought on. "Wow. It's like … it's like you got my motor revved up … or something."

"I'll go with that. And that's how it works, y'know. Eh, that's how it's  _supposed_  to work … if it's done right."

"Oh, Sweetie, I don't think it's possible to do it  _more_  right than what you did." She hugged herself, then reached for Jinx. "Come here. You aren't close enough."

They passed the next few minutes kissing, and stroking each other's hair, and exploring each other's body. Rachel was very interested (once she knew what it could do) in how Jinx's womanhood was put together, and had her lie back so she could investigate. Jinx wasn't _about_  to stop any exploration her lover wanted to do. Oh, no. Not at all.

Rachel settled herself on her stomach between Jinx's legs so she could get a good view of things, and studied the girl's parts. "This is fascinating." She pinched up a little of the major labia, moving it around, thrilling in the soft, elastic feel of it. "I never before gave any thought to how much of a plaything this might be."

"… Yeah … plaything …" Jinx gasped.

"Oh, is that nice?" She put her face closer and pulled in a deep breath through her nose. "You even smell pretty! Like cotton candy! I guess that hair of yours is 'truth in advertising'." Using both hands, she got a gentle grip on both sides and pulled them apart. Jinx hissed in appreciation. Rachel was delighted. "Hey, you've got another set on the inside!"

"… What?"

"Two more lips, only they're smaller and cuter, like little flower petals." With a playful grin, she dipped her head and sucked on one of the minor labia.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh …  _ **GOD!"**_

Letting go of the "flower petal" Rachel peeked up at her lover's face. Jinx was very flushed and breathing hard. "Huh. Guess I must be doing something right."

"You can … do some more of it … and I won't mind."

"Okay." And she did. Alternating between licking and suckling the "petals", and running her tongue all the way from the bottom of Jinx's vulva to the clit, she was soon rewarded with a wild yell from the pink-haired girl, and several warm squirts of some kind of fluid from her madly gyrating womanhood. She pulled back, initially concerned; but then she realized that, whatever it was, it wasn't urine. "Hey, Jinx, what's this stuff?"

Jinx was in no condition to give any sort of cogent answer.

Rachel wiped off a little of the fluid and looked at the drop hanging from her fingertip. It was slightly amber and had a light, musky aroma that jump-started her libido.  _Must be some pheromones in it. I wonder if normal humans do this, too._  She realized a drop of it was on her upper lip, and touched her tongue to it: salty, and very lightly sweet, with a sort of bitter overtone. She decided she liked it.

A mischievous smile growing, she eased up beside Jinx and let the drop on her finger fall into the girl's open mouth. Jinx blinked at her in surprise. "What was that?"

"That was you. You squirted me with something."

"Oh." Her head fell back. "Damn. Yeah. That's the female version of what a guy does when he shoots."

Rachel frowned. "But … that's weird. We don't make sperm. Why would we ejaculate?"

"Cause it  _Feels So_ _Damn_ _ **Good!"**_

Studying her partner, Rachel asked, "Do you think I can do it, too?"

"You did, a little, that second time. Why'd you think you were so wet?"

"Huh. Didn't really give it any thought." She giggled. "Had other things on my mind."

Jinx raised herself up on one elbow. "Hey, want to try something?"

"Honey," Rachel replied, putting a hand on Jinx's shoulder, "I will do  _anything_  you ask me to do.  _Please_ , let me 'try something'!"

"Okay, lie down." Jinx then positioned herself over Rachel and said, "You do some more of what you were doing, and I'll do the same to you at the same time."

"Oh … wow, Honey, I don't know. I don't think I can concentrate on doing my part if you're gonna make me go all crazy again."

"Fair enough. But let's give it a try."

And they did. And it worked a lot better than Rachel thought it might. So did everything else they tried until they were both so worn out they fell asleep wrapped up in each other.

 


	14. Going Solo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ("The time has come," the Titans said,
> 
> To talk of many things,
> 
> Of storylines and random plots,
> 
> Of copyrights and liens,
> 
> And DC's lawyers, boiling hot,
> 
> And broken arms in slings."
> 
> … And since I don't WANT my arm broken and in a sling, I am obliged to say that the Titans belong to someone else, who isn't – in any way, shape, form, or fashion – me.
> 
> -Concolor, with apologies to Lewis Carroll)

_CHAPTER 14_

…  _Earth … thirteen weeks after the Transition Event …_

A black scowl marring his features, Robin stalked into the common room. Cyborg, as usual, was going over technical data with Dr. Baker and his two technicians. The information gleaned through the Watchtower's vast array of sensors seemed to yield new clues every day. The elderly scientist had wangled some time on CalTech's new quantum supercomputer, and was very excited by the first few reams of results. Cyborg just wanted him to cut to the chase, but that wasn't the old man's style.

Robin stomped up to his teammate and slammed a piece of notebook paper on the desk beside his arm. Vic's head whipped over to look at it, then glanced up at Robin. "What the hell, Rob?"

"Read it."

Victor Stone picked up the heavily-scrawled paper and scanned it, his eyes getting progressively wider. Halfway through, he said, "No way!" When he finished reading he dropped it onto the desk and gave Robin a disgusted look. "Well, ain't that some shit!"

"Yes. Shit and then some."

"Whoa. He really  _did_  get under your skin."

His scowl getting, if possible, more forbidding, Robin gritted out, "I don't suppose you have any notion where he might have gone?"

"Not a clue, man. Little dude's been silent as a spook for weeks, you know that."

Robin pulled out a T-Com and laid it beside the paper; Vic's eyebrow quirked up in response. "Oh, no, he didn't!"

"Oh, yes, he did. Didn't you get the part about  _'don't try to contact me'_? Gar wants to be off the grid." He pulled a handful of tiny objects from a pocket and laid them next to the paper.

Victor gave them a narrow eye and asked, "Those what I think they are?"

"If you think they're the tracking chips from all his uniforms, then yes."

"Sonnabitch."

"Yeah." Robin threw up his hands and turned away. "What good does he think he's going to do? He as much as  _said_  he didn't have any idea where to start looking! He's been on this fool's quest for two solid months, and has accomplished exactly  _squat_."

"Enh. Wouldn't say  _that_. He busted up a drug ring."

"And I'm pleased and proud for him. And you  _know_  what I mean. Cleaning all the meth out of that little town was a great thing to do, but he moped around here for three-four days because it didn't get him any closer to his  _real_  goal."

"… Yeah. He did mope, didn't he?"

"And now …" He picked up the paper and cleared his throat, "to quote him,  _'Since none of you bastards gives a flying fuck about Raven, I'll have to do this on my own.'_  As if he hasn't been working solo up to now." He stared at the paper for a few seconds, then wadded it up into a tiny ball and hurled it across the room.

"I feel for ya, man. It's like he's tryin' to break up the team."

Robin stared off at nothing for a moment and then answered, "If we don't find Raven before too much more time passes, there may not be a team left."

####

…  _Apokolips …_

The great, rocklike creature studied the images and words running by on the large viewing panel on the opposite wall, standing in silence until the transmission reached its end. When his minion's report was complete, and Darkseid had digested its contents, he turned to the robe-clad being standing off to his left. His voice, that instrument of evil that stole hope and slew joy, came forth with the sound of grinding stone. "Desaad."

"Yes, Dread Lord?"

"You will investigate the sector of the galaxy mentioned in Pym's report."

"As you will, Dread Lord!"

"What I recall from the most recent surveys is that there is nothing there. Either those fools in the Justice League made a mistake, or the surveyors were careless. You will determine which is the true case."

"With all haste, Dread Lord."

He turned back to the viewing panel and raised a hand. The images flashed by, coming to rest on one paragraph. "For the first time, I have a reasonable amount of data on one of these Transition Events. No longer will they elude me. The culture that has lurked in the dark for the last two thousand years, striking out at random planets at random times, mocking my will, taking who they want … they will be  _ **mine**_." His hand closed into a fist, and the panel went black. "Their power will be mine. Adding the secret of their incredibly-long range warp engine to my boom-tube mother box will allow me to invade any planet in the galaxy at will." He glanced over at his minion. "I will be invincible. I will rule all."

"Of course, Dread Lord."

"Go."

Desaad bowed himself out quickly.

####

…  _Earth … near Avery Island, Louisiana …_

The bar in question was the very definition of 'cheap dive', expressed in rusted tin roofing and weathered cypress clapboard. The owner/bartender served Ripple and Night Train and brown rum and any number of local brews that never saw a tax stamp, and the patrons never asked any questions. The porch was missing several planks; the second support post from the left was broken, allowing the roof to sag nearly half a meter. No one had dredged up a good reason to fix it yet. Probably no one ever would.

The vehicle that pulled up and parked on the packed earth lot in front of the bar couldn't have been more out of place if a Martian had been driving it. The Rolls-Royce Ghost was a deep metallic blue, the butter-soft leather interior dyed to match. The trim and details that would have been chrome on any other car were, in this case, made of rhodium, a vastly more expensive – and more durable – metal. It contained a full bar, an entertainment center, and a communications setup that would have been the envy of a well-equipped CIA cell. The monthly upkeep on this unique mode of transport was more than the property it currently sat on was worth, liquor included.

With a soft click, the door opened, swinging out silently. The man who got out fit the car to a nicety. Dressed in a six-thousand-dollar tailored suit that was available only from one designer in Monaco, he was tall, lean, and hard, and his eyes glittered like chips of obsidian as he scanned the area, his gaze coming to rest on a ne'er-do-well leaning against the porch. The drunkard lurched away from the building and made his unsteady way over to the car. "Hey, Braw, watch yeer car fer yeh? Only a fiver."

The tall man stared at him for a moment and calmly answered, "If you touch my car I will have my men cut off your dick with a rusty saw and sew it into your mouth. Got it?"

The bum scuttled off, giving a great impression of a frightened beetle. The visitor looked around once more and then leaned against his car, fishing a pipe out of one pocket and a pouch of tobacco from another. With practiced aplomb, he filled and tamped down the bowl, then lit it with a taper designed expressly for that purpose. He'd only taken three puffs when a young man in a bowler hat came around the corner of the bar, spotted him, and walked over.

"Mr. Pirelli?"

"That depends. Got a card?"

The young man handed him one. He glanced at it, saw that it was the eight of diamonds, and tucked it into a pocket. "You look too young to be involved in the kind of shit this is about to turn into."

He shrugged. "Don't know nothin' 'bout no shit goin' down. Fella gimme twenny bucks ta hand ya thet card. I'm s'posed ta take ya to 'im."

"Lead on."

They trooped around to the back of the bar, found a footpath, and followed it. The sun was setting and the mosquitoes were getting dense. Mr. Pirelli kept one hand busy swatting at them while puffing out clouds of smoke. They didn't seem dissuaded. "How far is it?"

"Not too far."

Pirelli had a 10mm semi-auto in a shoulder holster. He was itching to use it. But then, he was itching anyway, given the mosquitoes.

"Don't much lahk th' skeeters, do ya, mister?"

"What do  _you_  think?"

His guide chuckled. "They pretty bad. Spit, an' knock twenny of 'em outta th' air."

"Just get me there," growled Pirelli.

In another three minutes they arrived at what was at one time a very humble shack, but now resembled a termite mound more than anything else.

"Here ya go. Wanna leave, jist foller th' path back t' Reynaud's." He handed Pirelli the bowler hat and left.

Pirelli looked at the hat in distaste, dropping it onto the moist earth. Then he gazed narrowly at the doorway in the side of the hut and walked on in.

It was quite dark inside. He pulled out his key-ring and pressed a stud, lighting up a small HILED flash. There wasn't much to see. Leaves and detritus littered the floor, along with several empty bottles, most of them broken. He called, "Hello? You got me out here. You want to talk. So talk."

"I'm over here, Dude."

The voice came from the door behind him, and made him turn abruptly, his hand going for his gun. He saw a lean figure standing there in what looked like a trench coat. He was wearing the bowler hat.

"Touch that pistol and it'll be the last thing you ever do."

Pirelli made his hand stop. He couldn't see well enough to figure out how the other man was armed. His voice sounded young, though, early twenties at best. But Pirelli hadn't gotten to where he was by being stupid; he could tell when someone was bluffing, and this young man wasn't. "Fine. But you  _have_  to know that you  _won't_  just be walking away from this free and clear."

"We'll see. First, I have some questions."

"Yeah, I got a question myself. How'd you find out about the diamonds?"

"How do you  _think_  I did it, Mr. Pirelli?"

"I don't have a clue. That's what bothers me. That's why  _I'm_  here instead of a flunky. The only way you could have gotten that information was if you tortured it out of one of my men. Since none of them got tortured, that leaves me with no options. I like having options."

"So do I, Mr. Pirelli."

"So how did you do it?"

"I attended your two most recent meetings, where you talked about the shipment of blood diamonds coming in, which port, what time, the name of the ship, all that juicy stuff. And then the one where you picked out which of your men would make the pickup."

" _You_  attended the meetings?"

The figure nodded.

"How?"

"It isn't really important to me that you  _know_  how, at least not yet. I answered your question. Now I have one."

"So, are we trading information?"

"We'll see." He leaned against the rotting doorframe. "I would like to know the whereabouts of the H.I.V.E. Academy."

Pirelli gave a short, bitter laugh. "I think my information is worth a hell of a lot more than yours."

"Possibly. But my information, in the right hands, can shut down your empire."

"Which won't do me much good if I'm dead, will it?"

"Are you  _that_  afraid of Brother Blood?"

"I'd be a fool  _not_  to be."

"Fine. Then can you tell me the names of some other of your ilk who know where to find the H.I.V.E., and who  _also_  possess a  _spine_ _?"_

"Insults won't get you what you want."

"Neither has being reasonable, so far."

Pirelli considered his foe. "Why would I tell you those names?"

"Because if you don't, you won't have to  _worry_  about Brother Blood … because _ **I**_  will kill you."

"You seem awfully sure of yourself. What sorts of guarantees do I have that …"

"I offer no guarantees except the one I just gave you. Give me the information I want, or die. Very simple."

Pirelli slowly shifted about ten centimeters to the left. "I don't think you can do it."

The figure shook his head in disgust. "Why do they always …"

There was a deafening report as a bullet tore through the trench coat. Pirelli grinned wolfishly as he watched it crumple to the ground. "So much for your … uh … your …" Frowning darkly, he stepped over to the small mound in the doorway.

It wasn't a body. It was just the trench coat; the hat lay on top.

 _What the hell?_  He poked at it with a foot.

Something hit him in the leg, and his world exploded in agony. He screamed and dropped to the floor, clutching at his calf. Then something hit him on the right forearm, with similar results, and then on the right bicep, and then on the right shoulder. He rolled around, trying to find some way to escape from the awful, blinding pain, but nothing helped. Then, once more, he was hit on the left side of his face, and he got an instant's flash of a wide, reptilian head before his eyes swelled shut.

The other man kicked Pirelli's gun out of reach. "What just happened, Mr. Pirelli, is that you got bitten by an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. It was a big one. Had lots of venom. And, as you probably just discovered, rattlesnake bites hurt. Depending on where you get bitten, the pain can be debilitating. I understand that getting a hit in the face is almost  _guaranteed_  to put you down." He chuckled. "How do you like  _that_  for a guarantee?"

The gangster was only semi-conscious by this time, and couldn't speak. His face was swelling so badly that it would soon close off his airways.

Gar Logan bent and rifled the dying man's pockets, retrieving the car keys, a quantity of cash, and his smartphone. Then, wrinkling his nose, he stood. "You're starting to smell. That must have been some really powerful venom." Walking to the door, he picked up his trench coat, frowning at the bullet hole. "I liked this coat. Now I'll have to get another one." He flipped through the wad of cash he'd taken, noting with pleasure that they were mostly fifties. "Okay! This ought to do it. Thanks." He snapped his fingers. "By the way, I already sent that information on the diamonds off to Interpol. They should be raiding your offices by sunup tomorrow."

A short, stertorous gasp was the only reply he got. Gar gave him a jaunty salute and left, swinging the keys on a finger.


	15. Practice Makes Perfect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Titans = Not Mine. Can't make it any plainer than that. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 15_

…  _elsewhere …_

Jinx woke up alone.

That didn't trouble her. After the intimacy she and Rachel had shared, their psychic link was strong. She could feel the other girl nearby, could feel that she was calm, happy, and safe. Nothing else really mattered.

She rolled over, stretched herself like a great cat, and sat up. One of the ubiquitous fruit trees was ready to hand, so she picked a few. Rachel had explained that although the various fruits had different flavors, they were all engineered to supply a perfect balance of nutrients for the human body. Jinx didn't care. They were delicious. If it meant she didn't have to live on pilfered Snickers bars and Diet Mountain Dew, she was happy.

Licking her fingers, she strolled in the direction of the immense crystal cavern, knowing she'd find her lover there. Sure enough, Rachel was floating up at its center, her arms flung wide, slowly rotating. With a slight exercise of will, Jinx activated her hex energy, altering the probability that her feet would stay on the ground, and floated up next to her. Rachel's ecstatic smile told Jinx that she was communing with the planetary entity, so she just waited, luxuriating in the life-changing light show going on all around them.

Several minutes later, Rachel blinked and then let her arms drop to her sides. She floated over next to Jinx and embraced her. "Oh, Honey! I have so much to tell you."

"Thought you might. I was pickin' up a little bit, here and there, sort of reflected off you. She's got a plan, don't she?"

"She does. She's figured out how to get our powers to mesh with hers. Then we'll be able to generate warp fields!"

"Hey, that's cool!" Then one word Rachel had used percolated through and her eyes got very wide. "Whoa, whoa! Back up a tic. Did you say 'we'?"

"Mmhmm."

"We? You and me? Not her? She the one that's been doing it for, like, a million years."

"She'll be showing us the ropes, guiding us, helping us with details and the like, but no. She won't be generating the actual field; we will."

"There's that 'we' again. You mean  _you'll_  be putting this thing together, right?"

"No, it'll take both of us."

"But I don't know  _shit_  about scientific stuff!"

"Who said anything about science? She doesn't use technology to do it. It's a matter of controlled will power." Glancing pointedly at Jinx's floating feet, she observed, "You know, sort of like what you're doing right now?"

"… Okay. Point. But still …"

"Don't worry about it! She'll show us everything, and we have  _ **plenty**_ _of time_. She's waited for this for twenty million years. Another few weeks or months won't make any difference, trust me."

"Well, when you put it that way …"

####

They sat facing each other, cross-legged. Jinx was having some trouble keeping her mind on-task, what with Rachel's sumptuous pulchritude being displayed right in front of her face.

"Okay, now, try it again."

"This is not easy, Rae."

"It also isn't all that hard. You're over-thinking it again. Just let the hex energy flow."

Muttering imprecations, Jinx closed her eyes, furrowed her brow, and tried to visualize the matrix Rachel had described. Summoning up a good load of hex energy, she fed it slowly into the mental construct. About half of it was in place when it started getting away from her, and before she could siphon it off, the whole matrix came apart. The soundless detonation hurled the girls several meters away from each other. Jinx was on her feet in an instant, and ran to Rachel. "Rae! Honey! You okay? Say something!"

Rachel was very groggy. The hex had rung her bell quite thoroughly, reminding her of some of the fights they used to have. "Gottagettumbackonnapony."

"What? No! Rachel, don't be brain-dead! Please, please, be all right!"

The purple eyes opened, but had some trouble focusing. "Jinx?"

"Yes! You okay in there?"

"Uff."

"Uff? What's 'uff' supposed to mean?"

"Means my head hurts." She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Think we better knock off for a while."

"I'm sorry! I couldn't hold it, and it …"

"Don't worry. 's okay. We'll get it. Just take some time." She squinted at her companion. "Got any of that fruit handy?"

####

Several sleep periods passed while an increasingly frustrated Jinx continued to  _ **not**_  get it. Rachel tried explaining it from every angle she could think of, but with each slip, with each failure, with all the different ways they tried to come at it, the pink-haired girl became more completely sure that it would never make any sense to her.

She was lying on her side on one of the hummocks, eyes squeezed shut, refusing to cry. The planet entity had Rachel in the big crystal, helping her heal the nasty contusion she got from the latest explosion.

_I hate feeling weak and useless. I hate it._

_Why don't you do something about it, then?_

_Like what?_

No answer came; but then, she wasn't really expecting one. A yawn surprised her, and then a bigger one, and she stretched and turned onto her back. She was just too tuckered out from the intense concentration it took to fabricate the warp matrix.

_What I need is some more sleep._

_Yeah, that helped_ _**so** _ _much every other time._

_Shut up._

Resolving not to worry about it just now, she curled up into a ball like a cat and closed her eyes. Soon, she slept.

. . . . . . .  _Jinx walked beside her, the golden light spilling over them, flowing down their bodies, flowing past them and over the cliff's edge like a cataract, the cool wind blowing her hair gently to one side, the land laid out below them like a crazy quilt_. . . . .  **isn't the view just scrumptious from up here?**  . . . . .  _it sure is – hey, wait – this is a dream, isn't it?_  . . . . .  **yes, dear young sentient known as Jinx, it is**  . . . . .  _so how come I'm not freaking out this time?_  . . . . .  **I have deduced that I can talk to you in your dreams, if I do so slowly and quietly, and not overwhelm you**  . . . . .  _oh, cool – I appreciate that – so, we need to talk? It's because I'm screwing up royally, right?_  . . . . .  **no, dear one, you are not 'screwing up' – you merely lack certain abilities – both of you do – but I can fix that if you will allow me**  . . . . .  _well, sure, why would I mind?_  . . . . .  **because the process may be uncomfortable in some respects**. . . . .  _uh, is that uncomfortable like when the dentist says 'This might tingle' or uncomfortable like when you get dropped into a gear train feet-first?_  . . . . .  **no, dear child –**   **no physical harm will come to you – but it may be emotionally uncomfortable – you will need to overcome a natural reluctance**  . . . . . _reluctance? – huh – I dunno – I'm not too sure I like the sound of that, but if it's necessary, I guess I'm game_  . . . . .  **I will try to make it as pleasant as possible, but I need for you to trust me in this**  . . . . .  _okay, now you're scaring me_  . . . . .  **I fear that is unavoidable – but in any case, this will be something you can do – you may even enjoy parts of it**. . . . .  _so when do we start?_  . . . . .  **you will need to finish your sleep first – then I will explain all to dear young sentient Rachel, and the two of you can begin**  . . . . .

Warmth. Peace. Slowly, and more slowly, she came awake. Rachel's arm was draped over her protectively, the deep purple head nestled under her chin. Jinx sighed in contentment, and softly stroked the girl's back until she stirred and opened her eyes. A brilliant smile lit up her face. "Hi."

"I will never,  _ever,_ _ **ever**_  get tired of seeing you wake up."

"I bet you say that to all the empathic half-demons."

Jinx kissed her nose. "No. Just you." They sat up and Jinx looked around. "Did she talk to you?"

"About her plan?" Rachel got a pensive look on her face. "Yeah. She did. But she didn't go much into details. I did find out one very …  _unusual_ thing about her."

Jinx leaned back in a laugh. "Unusual? About a twenty-million-year-old planet-sized intelligence? Why, whatever could be remarkable about such a …"

Rachel blew her a raspberry. "Cheeky."

Jinx curved away far enough to present her tight backside, giving Rachel a wicked grin. "Yep. Got two, in fact."

That earned her a spank on one of them, but she didn't seem surprised by that result.

"I'm trying to tell you something important and all you can do is throw double entendres around! Now just  _listen_  a minute."

She got up close to Rachel, staring at her with wide 'kitten eyes'. "I'm all ears."

Rachel had to giggle. "You and those eyes!" She hugged the girl, and kissed her soundly. "I want to make love to you again, but I have to tell you something first."

"I'm liiiiiistening!"

"Really?"

"Truly!"

"Very well. Her … um, I guess you'd say her  _metabolism_  exists in more than one plane."

Jinx stared at her, the very picture of confusion. "… The words are all English, but …"

"Okay, look. You know how our digestive tract works, right?"

"Well, sure."

"Okay, do you know about the Krebs citric cycle?"

"The whoosiwhichawhat?"

"It's how the cells in your body turn oxygen and glucose and a few other things into adenosine triphosphate and carbon dioxide. It's how all higher life forms on Earth produce energy at the cellular level."

"… I thought you didn't have any formal schooling! You sound like a science teacher."

"When the Titans were formed, one of the things we had to agree to was that each member would earn his or her GED. Robin already had the equivalent of a couple of Master's degrees by the time he was fifteen, what with studying under the Batman. Cyborg was ahead of the game, too, being the child of a couple of Nobel-level scientists; he could teach physics in any college in the country. Beast Boy and I earned our GEDs at the same time, when I was almost seventeen, and I've always been a voracious reader anyway. Starfire had quite a bit of formal education on her home world, since she was part of the royal family and so had to be prepared for …"

" _ **What?"**_

"Huh?"

"Starfire's  _royalty?"_

"… Yeah. Her sister rules Tamaran. Star's a princess. Of course, she's in exile and can't ever go back home, so she's …"

"What, not  _ever?"_

"I take it all this information is new to you." Rachel tapped a finger against her chin. "That's to be expected, I guess. We don't really publish that sort of data."

"So Starfire's a member of the royal family, but she can't  _ever_  go back to her  _home?_  How fucked up is  _that?"_

"It's not a good situation, I'll grant you, but she has developed a really close bond with the Titans." Her brow furrowed in concern. "I'll bet they're all going nuts worrying about me."

"Yeah. Not so much the H.I.V.E. Five, though, I bet." She thought that over for a second and shook her head. "No, Mammoth will be worried. He's always looked out for me, ever since I showed up at the Academy."

Rachel put a sympathetic hand on the pink head. "We'll get back home, Honey. They won't have to worry too much longer."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, pretty sure. Which brings me back to my point. Her metabolism, or part of it, anyway, takes place in another plane of existence. She has a … a little pocket universe, I guess you could say. It's a place outside of this time-space continuum, an entire dimension that is just big enough to hold her mass."

"So, a planet-sized universe. Cool."

"Exactly. Anyway, she has a huge amount of control over what goes on in that pocket universe. She says she can put us there, or rather, put our spirits there, and then … do what she has to do to train us or correct the shortcomings or whatever."

"That sounds easy enough."

"She said there was a catch, though, and she wouldn't explain it, at least not to my satisfaction. Something about having to 'reboot' our spirits."

"Well that's spooky. I don't know if I want my spirit rebooted. Isn't that like wiping the slate clean or something?"

"I don't know. We'll have toooooooooooooooooooo …"

Seeing Rachel's eyes begin to glow, Jinx recognized the investing presence. "Oh! Hello."

**Hello, young Sentient known as Jinx.**

**You have many Questions.**

**I will answer.**

**In my other Realm**

**You will know no Harm,**

**Though you may not Understand.**

**Your Spirit is incomplete.**

**There is Growth that must take place.**

**This Growth would come with Time**

**To all in your Race**

**Who seek a Higher Calling.**

**But you are Young.**

**Fresh and Strong and Brave and Loving,**

**But Young.**

**You will require Training**

**That only may be done through**

**Regeneration**

**Of your Spirit.**

**This I can do.**

**But you must Trust me.**

"Okay. I do … I – I mean I trust you. I'm just … a little nervous."

Rachel's eyes shone for several more seconds, and then she slumped over into Jinx's arms. Brushing the purple hair away from her face, Jinx whispered, "You okay, Baby?"

A long, stuttering sigh was her answer. Then she reached up, smiled at Jinx, and said, "Let's make love now."

####

"So are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be. I just wish she wasn't being so cryptic."

"Yeah, so do I." The empath dimpled, "Can't fault her methods, though. If getting ready involves lovemaking …"

"Right. No argument here."

Rachel closed her eyes and concentrated.  _We are ready._

There was no warning, no hint of what was about to happen. To Jinx it felt as if the world were dropping out from under her. Gravity disappeared. A soft, silvery nothingness suffused her vision. She was getting feedback from not one, single nerve ending. It wasn't like paralysis; it was much more complete than that, a total disconnect from her body, her surroundings. Then it was over. She and Rachel blinked and looked at each other. "Boy, that was weird!"

"I'll say." They peered around. The light was different, more reddish and dimmer, and the ubiquitous moss was gone. They stood on smooth rock, in a small mountain glen, surrounded by immense conifers.

Jinx tapped a foot against the rock. "Feels real enough."

A voice behind them said, "It will feel as real as you let it."

They whirled and stared, open-mouthed. The woman was tall and regal, well-proportioned, with dark skin and long, curling black hair. Her face was … elusive. They could only see her eyes, those shining, beautiful, terrible eyes. Both girls looked away.

"Please do not be afraid, young Sentients."

Jinx swallowed hard and said, "That's a tall order, ma'am."

"Please," the woman said, "call me K'Naa."

 


	16. Escalation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This is a work of fiction. The plot, such as it is, being entirely the doing of the Author, any resemblance between the characters in this story and the Teen Titans, real or imagined, is a happy coincidence. The correct response to this is to be pleased by the accidental flattery. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 16_

…  _Earth … fifteen weeks after the Transition Event …_

Little bits of litter and dead leaves blew down the boulevard ahead of the storm front that was about to make itself at home in Elgin, Oregon. The trash piled up in corners and alleys, and sometimes got plastered on the cars parked under the long sheds that ran along every street. The locals were used to this, and knew enough to stay indoors during one of these intense-but-short-lived thunder-boomers. Sound roofs and sturdy walls were proof against the horizontal rain that would shortly be pounding down, and shutters were soon battened against the strong possibility of hail. These were the times when families would gather, knowing that staying put was the best course of action, and making the best of it until the storm blew itself out.

Gar Logan  _wasn't_  a local. And he  _wasn't_  going to stay put.

He had tracked information about the H.I.V.E. all the way across the country four times in the last three weeks, following the most tenuous of leads, and leaving not a few corpses in his wake. Word was getting around. No one had yet guessed who was behind all the deaths, but the very strangeness of some of them, the very randomness, the lack of a pattern, pointed to a seriously unstable killer. It hadn't occurred to anyone that Beast Boy, of all people, might be connected. While not precisely a pacifist, Beast Boy was known to go easy on criminals, and to take particular care not to damage anyone if he could help it. He was a  _vegetarian_ , for God's sake! It was such a ludicrous idea that it hadn't crossed the mind of anyone who could put all the facts together in a salient picture.

For Gar's part, tonight, he really couldn't care less who guessed what. Currently in the form of a mid-size dog, he snuffed along an alley, following one special scent, until he came to a row of dumpsters lined up along the back of an old, abandoned church building. Morphing back to his base state, he examined the one second from the left, noting soon that it was mounted on rollers. He bulked up into his giant gorilla form and eased it away from the wall, exposing a narrow door. Not bothering with picking the lock or breaking it down, he became a tiny midge and crawled in through the tumblers, just as the rain began in earnest. Leaving it locked, he reasoned, would make it that much more difficult for those inside to leave quickly.

Since it was pitch black inside, he became a bat and used echolocation to find his way to the next door. This one was much stouter than the first door, being steel clad and quite thick. But, in the form of a miniscule parasite, he squirmed his way under. Then, there was light in plenty. He morphed into his roach form and scurried along at the base of a wall. One bored guard sat in a chair at the end of the hall, his hat pulled over his eyes, fingers laced across his stomach. Gar got around behind him, morphed into a velociraptor, and relieved the guard of his head. Back in human form, he tested the next door, finding it unlocked. His sensitive ears could hear voices from the other side.

He spent the next few minutes as a tiny fly, floating up and down the hallways that honeycombed the earth below the old church. Most of the students were either gathered in one of the two common rooms, or were sparring in the gym. All told, Gar counted nineteen. That being a very significant drop from his last known count, he reluctantly decided that this must be a satellite campus. Nor was Brother Blood anywhere. Now  _there_  was a score he would relish settling.

He chose a dorm room at random. The occupant, a girl in her late teens, was reading a copy of  _Soldier of Fortune_  while her headphones pounded out something with a heavy bass beat. Gar-mosquito hovered near the ceiling and studied the room, deducing from the mass of electronic equipment that she was either some kind of inventing whiz or could manipulate electricity. Also, her name was Lora. In any case, he would have to be careful. Floating over until he was directly over her head, he morphed into a twenty-kilo alligator snapping turtle and dropped on her like a boulder.

Four minutes later he had her trussed up, blindfolded, and suspended between two bedposts. He got a cola out of her mini-fridge and poured it over her head. She came to sputtering, and cursing. Loudly.

"Be quiet, or I'll knock you out again."

She jerked her head up, trying to determine where he was. "Who th' fuck'r you?"

"Ah-ah-ah! Not your turn to ask questions. Me first. Where is Brother Blood?"

She struggled against her restraints, exhibiting a heretofore-unknown degree of strength. One of her bonds broke with a sharp snap. Gar stepped forward and smashed her on the head with both fists. "Sorry, can't let you do that. Gotta finish my questions. Questions first, death later."

"… You … you gonna  _kill_  me? What'd I ever do t'  _you?_  I don' even  _know_  you!"

"Sorry, kid. Wrong place, wrong time. You work for Brother Blood, and that automatically makes you meat."

She whimpered.

"Oh, man-up, for the love o' shit."

"Please don't kill me! I just …"

"You just made a bad decision when you signed up with the H.I.V.E. That's all. Now. Where is Brother Blood?"

"He went to the main campus. Left yesterday."

That might be true. "When is he coming back?"

"I … I dunno. A week? Maybe? He didn't tell us!"

"And where is this 'main campus'?"

"It's down-state somewhere. On the border with California. I ain't never been there." She licked her lips. "Please let me go. I won't say nothin'."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Being a part of the H.I.V.E., you can't be …" He narrowly escaped serious injury from the wicked, purple lightning that shot from her eyes, burning holes in the blindfold.  _Bloody hell! I was right about the electricity, and like an idiot I gave her time to charge up._  He jumped out of her field of view and changed into a deerfly.

Lora redoubled her efforts, breaking the rest of the ropes and screaming for all she was worth. She was just drawing breath for another screech when massive jaws closed on her neck. There was a brief crunch, and she went limp.

The green tiger dropped the body, frowning in disgust as shouts and running feet could be heard coming this way _. Oh, well,_  he thought,  _fat's in the fire now. Time to rumble._

The fight lasted about ten minutes. It's easy to inflict maximum damage when you don't care whether your foe lives or dies.

####

…  _deep space …_

The Rift. That's what this area was called, by those who cared about such things. Located on the far side of the Perseus Arm, the Rift is heavy on Dark Matter and very light on actual stars. Most of the ones that  _ **are**_  there can't be seen from more than a few parsecs away. Given the Rift's huge expanse, searching it is always a tedious and unrewarding chore. That was certainly Desaad's opinion. He wasn't looking forward to what he considered an exercise in futility. But one simply did  _ **not**_  disagree with Darkseid. That would be a  _distinctly_  career-limiting move.

He was at the head of a small task force, some dozen ships, all sleek and fast, and even given his judicious use of boom-tubes, he was  _still_  at least three weeks away from the Rift. Then there would be weeks lost in poking through that impenetrable interstellar soup, then more weeks of travel back to Apokolips. It was maddening. He held none of his lackeys in  _anything_ _ **like**_  a position of trust. They hated him almost as much as he hated them. He disliked leaving such important matters as torture in the hands of those fools, but he had no choice.  _Feh! They'll likely kill all the prisoners before I can return, and Darkseid will hold me responsible!_  It was not to be borne.

But bear it, he must. Darkseid's will was law on a par with gravity. One disobeyed at the cost of one's soul. So he studied his star charts, played  _eklon_  with two of the crew every few days, and brooded in his cabin.


	17. First Lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Plagiarists die many times before their deaths;  
> True Authors never taste of death but once.  
> Of all the fanfics that I yet have read,  
> It seems to me most strange that men should fear;  
> Seeing that DC, a necessary source,  
> Always will have its rightful pound of flesh.  
> And so, not willing my heart's blood to spill,  
> I must forsake connection to the Titans.
> 
> -Concolor, with abject apologies to Wm. Shakespeare)

_CHAPTER 17_

…  _elsewhere …_

They whirled and stared, open-mouthed. The woman was tall and regal, well-proportioned, with dark skin and long, curling black hair. Her face was …  _elusive_. They could only see her eyes, those shining, beautiful, terrible eyes. Both girls looked away.

"Please do not be afraid, young Sentients."

Jinx swallowed hard and said, "That's a tall order, ma'am."

"Please," the woman said, "call me K'Naa."

Rachel raised her face to the being. "K'Naa. So you have named yourself. That is a beautiful name."

"Not so much a name as an avocation. I was given that title a very, very long time ago by a very wise creature. It is a concept from his people's faith system, meaning  _One Who Sets Free the Truth_. This is my aspiration. I do not believe I have quite arrived, but with your help perhaps I can, at last, live up to his expectations of me."

Jinx was having a little trouble dragging herself past the huge blockade of 'awe' that clogged her brain. "Ma'am … ah, Ms. K'Naa …"

"Just K'Naa, please. No other honorific is necessary."

"Right. K'Naa." She gulped a quick breath. "Whoo. I don't know if I'm up to this."

"You are admirably suited to the task at hand, young Sentient Jinx. You have  _love._  You carry love for young Sentient Rachel, and you are not afraid to express this love. Such  _boldness_ , such  _fierce_  love … this is all that is required."

Jinx glanced over at Rachel, noting that she wasn't looking at K'Naa's face either.

Rachel said, "I realize that love is needed … um, a necessary part of your plan. But how is it that never before, in all the time you've been trying to do this …"

"A valid question, young Sentient Rachel." She motioned them toward a stone seat. "By way of explanation, let me tell you a bit about your fellow sojourners in this galaxy." The girls got comfortable – as comfortable as they  _could_  get under that awe-inspiring gaze – and K'Naa continued, "I have been bringing various beings to my world for a very long time. Prior to that, I studied the minds of those I could reach for a much, much longer period. While wisdom ever seems to be in short supply when compared with ignorance or hate or, worst of all, apathy, there has never been a time when I couldn't find a culture somewhere in my range that had achieved some sort of culmination."

"A what?" asked Jinx.

"A pinnacle. A zenith. They realized their full potential as a species."

"Oh. Okay." She snorted. "That ain't us."

K'Naa smiled. "Indeed not. Nevertheless, your people possess something even rarer, on a galactic scale, than wisdom."

Rachel ventured a guess. "Would that be love?"

"Yes. Although the majority do not normally  _exercise_  it, humans have a capacity for love I have only seen in a few dozen other races. At this point in the timestream, there are but six planets in the scope of my studies whose inhabitants are able to love each other with the same fierce, reckless abandon that you have."

"Six? Is that  _all?"_

"I sense your disbelief. Perhaps I should re-tool my definitions. Take the inhabitants of Tamaran, for example."

Rachel nodded. "That's exactly who I was thinking of! Koriand'r is one of the most loving, loyal, open and carefree people I've ever met."

"She is that. She is also not exactly representative of her people. While they are honest and loyal and honorable and friendly to a fault, they do not love the same way you do. Their love is highly structured, ritualized, and focused. Consider young Sentient Jinx for a moment."

Rachel's gaze slid over to Jinx, and a wide smile broke out on her face.

K'Naa's laughter startled the girls. "Yes! That is precisely what I mean! You have but to catch a glimpse of the object of your love, and myriad thoughts and feelings race across your mind. Memories of the love you have shared, yearning to share again soon, hopes for your future together, physical desire, emotional vulnerability, a willingness to put yourself in harm's way to protect the other, a deep appreciation for the other's beauty and personality traits. Both of you are feeling these things now."

The girl's faces burned bright red.

"And that, too! I find humans endlessly delightful – when they are not bent on killing one another. This  _bashfulness_  that you both feel … this is strange and fascinating and odd and wonderful and unusual. You are in love. You have no qualms about being in love. You will gladly share this news with your friends when you get back to Earth. And yet, when you hear a comment concerning your relationship, you suffer embarrassment. It is a very odd thing. You are proud of your relationship, but there are aspects of it that you wish to keep very private, even though others know of them, and you  _know_  that they know of them. Those things are not for sharing with others, at least not directly."

"It's really nerve-racking," noted Jinx, "to have somebody  _that_  deep in my head."

"Please accept my apologies, young Sentient Jinx. You are, in a very real sense, inside my mind at this moment. You are currently a mental construct yourself. Overlap is unavoidable."

"I know. It's just … kinda spooky. Having someone repeat my thoughts back to me."

Rachel reached over and took Jinx's hand. "It's okay, Sweetie. Just pretend like she's your conscience."

"Heh! I'd say she'd make a damn sight better conscience than the one that came as original equipment."

"I am flattered, young Sentient Jinx. But this explanation was necessary for you to understand what I need you to do and why. Another nearly unique trait of humans is that what you do for procreation, you also do for relaxation and the expression of the intimacy of your love. Indeed, many millions of words have been written for the sole purpose of enabling skill in this act. More often than not, the act that would normally bring about offspring is done purely for pleasure, with no expectation of pregnancy. In fact, many of you go to great lengths to prevent pregnancy from occurring."

Jinx interjected, "Well I sure as hell can't take care of a baby right now! You better believe I use birth control." But then she dimpled, glancing at Rachel. "Not that it's much of an issue any more."

"That is another trait that is common with humans, but rare among other races. Many of you have a very egalitarian attitude when it comes to partners. Oh, it is not  _entirely_  unique. The Boahm, a race of beings who came to dominate the planet they called Berrevet, had five distinct sexes that could mix and match in several ways. They were a very laid-back people, to use one of your terms. You would have liked them."

"Are they not around anymore?"

"Not in several million years."

"I bet there's a lot of that going around."

"Extinction? Yes. It is quite common for a race to spring up, and flourish, and even travel the stars, and then finally fade away. That is the way of all flesh, and it doesn't usually take even half a million years, from the time they first develop language until the time when not even dust remains of their civilization."

A frown came to rest on Jinx's brow. "That's really … sad."

"Ah, what is truly  _sad_ , young Sentient Jinx, is when a race develops, and gains knowledge, and builds a civilization, and yet never achieves wisdom. That is true sadness: the illogic and tragedy of wasted potential. Oh, how many, many times I have seen that happen!"

Rachel reached out to her, but hesitated when her hand was about to brush K'Naa's arm. She did, at last, lay her fingers on the smooth, brown skin, finding it warm and soft.  _It's as real as we let it be._  "I'm sorry you've had to see that so often. It must be rough, being on the sidelines like that, watching things play out to the bitter and unsatisfying end, and not being able to help."

K'Naa raised her face. "Yes. It is hard. It is hard to watch, hard to know that I can do so very little," turning in Rachel's direction, she added, "which makes this effort that we are preparing here that much more important."

Jinx muttered, "No pressure, though."

"No, young Sentient Jinx, you are correct. We are not operating under any time pressure. We have, literally, the rest of your lives to get it right, if it takes that long. I do not, however, feel that time will be a problem. I believe you will get it right early in the effort, and that your follow-through and judicious use of your new power will be a credit to your race."

 _Damn,_ thought Jinx, _hard act to follow, much?_

K'Naa pretended not to hear that. "So, as to what I need you to do … you might say it is more of the same things you have been doing."

"Yes," agreed Rachel, "you were going to explain the details."

"Here, then, is the issue, young Sentients: you have powers that are new to me. Young Sentient Rachel's soul-self, an entity that is at once separate from and integral to her being, would not have existed without the demonic influence of her sire. Though he meant it for evil, she has renounced such an outcome and has embraced the good instead. I know you can feel this facet of her personality, young Sentient Jinx."

"Yeah." She grinned at her lover. "You might say that."

"There is a tremendous amount of potential in the soul-self that she has only just recently begun to realize. It has inter-dimensional aspects that I can sense, dimly, but do not know yet how they may be utilized. She already is able to use it for short-range teleportation. It is my hope that through this effort we are about to undertake, she will gain full use of the soul-self, and I will gain access to cultures across the galaxy."

" _That_  would be cool!"

"As you say. And you, young Sentient Jinx, are imbued with a most unique form of power in your 'hex energy'. As young Sentient Rachel has explained to you, and as you have begun to understand, it is much more than the blunt instrument you have used in the past."

"I know! I had no idea I could fly! It's the coolest thing!"

"Flight may be the  _least_  of the things you will be able to do, young Sentient Jinx. Your ability to alter the governing rules of physics, to turn probability in your favor, has vast, possibly even universal implications."

Jinx's eyes went round. " _How's_  that again?"

"We do not know the extent of your ability. That is one thing I wish to learn. I will be very surprised if it does not transpire that you can affect events on other planets purely through the force of your will."

"… You have  _ **got**_  to be shitting me!"

"No, young Sentient Jinx. As you would say, I shit you not. My investigation into your powers has convinced me that you are holding most of it in check. I hope to be able to help you release its potential."

"I … damn … I don't know if I'm … up for that. That's scary."

"We will work together on this, young Sentient Jinx. It will not be so scary when you arrive."

Jinx had no reply to that. She snuggled up next to Rachel, her face pensive.

The empath asked, "So, how about those details? You said we needed to do more of what we've been doing. You mean making love?"

"Indeed I do. That aspect of human sexuality has perfect application here. In order to reconfigure your spirit essence, I will need large quantities of love to work with, and creating the energy here in …"

"Excuse me, ah, K'Naa?" Jinx had a hand raised. "Reconfigure?"

"Yes. That is how we will unlock your potential, young Sentients."

"How's that work?"

"When you have generated the right quantity of love energy, one of you will need to be temporarily disengaged. You might think of it as 'shut down for maintenance'."

Jinx had sudden deep reservations about that term. "Shut down."

"Yes."

"That sounds a little like 'dead'."

"That is probably what it will feel like. However, you should not worry. This is why we are doing it in the virtual world of my mind, in a pocket universe, separate from your bodies."

Jinx was not reassured. "I've never been dead before. You'll pardon me if I don't look forward to it."

K'Naa had to smile at that. "This, also, is something that we will work through. I will only be able to operate on one of you at a time." She turned to Rachel. "Would you be willing to go through the procedure first? Then perhaps young Sentient Jinx will not be frightened."

With a curt nod, Rachel agreed, and flicked her gaze over at Jinx. "Since you mention it, Babe, I  _have_  been dead before, in a manner of speaking. It's somewhat more peaceful than you might have been led to believe."

"Dead?  _You?_  How the hell …"

"In the battle with my father. It's a long story. But I was dead for a time."

"Huh. Okay, so, familiar territory for you." She drew a sharp breath and blew it out. "Fine. I can do this."

"There is one other point that you need to know, young Sentients."

They both looked at her.

"Young Sentient Jinx, you will have to free young Sentient Rachel's spirit. And she will have to do the same for you."

"Free it? How?"

"Through a seeming of death."

Two mouths dropped open. Jinx said, "No way! I can't do  _that_ , I  _love_  her!"

"Please understand. It is not a real death. It is only a seeming. But I cannot do it. I will be fully occupied in catching the spirit and making changes to it. You will need to free it yourselves."

The girls looked at each other. Rachel gave a shiver and said, "Well, if we have to, we have to. Yeah, I'll go first."

"This is bullshit! I can't kill Rachel!"

"Jinx, it'll be okay." She took the other girl's face in her two hands and kissed her. Jinx melted into the embrace. After a minute, Rachel pulled away and then held the girl against her chest. "How do we go about the … the killing?"

K'Naa held out her hand and a long, ornate dagger appeared in it. "It is needful that the freeing be carried out with haste. A quick blow to the heart is the best way to achieve this in your current forms."

Both girls stared at the dagger. Jinx sat up and put her arm around Rachel's shoulders. "That thing sure  _looks_  real."

"It is necessary for the release of the spirit for the seeming to be as realistic as possible. I have done all I can do in preparing this place and in determining how each of your spirits is to be modified. This one thing you must do for yourselves."

Rachel gave herself a tiny shake. "How will we know when it is time? When will we have enough energy for you to … do your thing with our spirits?"

"You will be able to tell. It will be apparent to both of you."

"Is it possible," Jinx wanted to know, "to have  _too much_  of this love energy?"

"No, young Sentient Jinx. When there is enough, I will be able to perform the modification. If there is more than enough, it will simply dissipate." She smiled. "You may make love as long as you wish before the freeing takes place."

Rachel and Jinx looked at each other. Rachel kissed her again. "I guess we're ready, then."

"Very well." Suddenly K'Naa was standing. She raised a hand and a perfectly round, bed-sized section of the smooth rock rose about a meter. "This will collect the energy while you make love. I will alter the top to make it more comfortable." And the surface of the altar became slightly fuzzy.

Rachel stood and led Jinx over to it, and they both climbed on. Jinx glanced back at K'Naa. "I don't guess you could … no I guess not. You're gonna be busy."

"Another time perhaps, young Sentient Jinx, I will be able to join the two of you in your lovemaking, if that is your wish. Since you are here in my mind already, I will be experiencing what you experience anyway. It simply will not feel that way to you."

"Okay. So you'll be here with us anyhow?"

"Yes, you could view it that way." She laid the dagger near the edge. "As I said, you will know when to use this."

Jinx eyed it ominously. "Yeah. Thanks."

K'Naa faded out and vanished.

Turning to her lover, Jinx said, "I dunno about you, but the threat of imminent death kinda blows the mood to shit."

"It's not really death, Hon. We are in a virtual reality. Think of it as a really big, really elaborate video game."

"A video game?"

"Yeah. Like one of those quest games the boys are always playing."

"Stone used to play Immortal Conflict with me at the H.I.V.E." She picked up the dagger. "Y'know, this thing even looks a little like one my character carried."

"Maybe K'Naa picked it out of your mind."

"Maybe so." Squaring her shoulders, she took a few breaths. "Maybe I  _can_  do this."

"Attagirl! I know you'll come through."

"Right. But first I have to just  _come_."

A sly smile planted itself on Rachel's face. "Ooo, double entendres!" She slid close, noting how soft and resilient the surface of the altar-thing was. "Those get me hot."

"You're such a bookworm."

Rachel slipped a finger in between her lover's legs, surprising Jinx, who gasped in a sudden rush of blood to that region. "Bookworm, eh? Well, I think I can make it feel like  _some_  kind of worm." She wriggled the finger, and Jinx went positively gooey. Her first orgasm hit forty seconds later.

They made love for almost an hour, ending up in a scissors position. Both girls were covered in sweat, but the altar's surface wicked it away efficiently. Jinx was on her stomach, her left hand gripping Rachel's wrist in an aerialist's hold. Rachel was on her side, pulling them together for all she was worth, grinding their nether regions as one. As in all their previous bouts, she had learned that one orgasm just made her want a second, and a second led to a third, and so on, each one coming on sooner than the last. Now, she was in a state of nearly-constant climax. Her vulva vibrated spasmodically against the slick smoothness that was Jinx, generating three or four orgasms for every one that Jinx had. She'd questioned whether the pink-haired girl shaved, but no. Jinx had never developed pubic hair in the first place. Rachel didn't care. It improved access.

With a final, wrenching gasp, Jinx pulled away and stretched herself out like a cat. Rachel blinked, breathing hard, and her hand darted to her quivering slit. Two more shattering climaxes shook her while Jinx was collecting herself. But then the meta-human sat up, frowning. "Rae? I think it's time."

Rachel had difficulties tuning her attention to what Jinx was saying. At length, though, she also noticed what Jinx had seen: the altar was glowing faintly. Glancing to the side, she noted that the dagger was glowing more than that. A quick roll, and she had her hand on it. The hilt was warm to the touch, as if someone had been holding it for a while and just put it down. She got up on her knees and offered it to Jinx. "Here."

The pink eyes regarded the object in sudden fear. "Damn. It's getting really hard to think about this like it's a video game, Rae."

"I know. But we need to do this. Go on, take it."

Jinx did. It was weighty and solid, the balance about two centimeters past the guard, a finely crafted tool meant to do one thing and do it well.

Rachel straightened herself, presenting her perfect breasts to Jinx. "Hit hard. And don't miss."

Jinx just stared at the weapon until Rachel reached over, took her hand, and positioned the needle-like tip against her chest, just left of the sternum. Still, Jinx didn't move. She whispered, "It's too real. I … I can't …"

Rachel's other hand came up, and she wrapped both of them around Jinx's. "Quick, Sweetie. Like this." And she yanked hard, driving the dagger into her heart.

Jinx screamed. There was no blood. Instead, a burst of white light blinded her for a second. When she could see again, Rachel was gone. "Rae? Rae? … RAE!"

####

_~ flicker ~_

… the gigantic blue ball was giving off a million times the energy of Sol … she was close enough that it should have vaporized her … instead, the vast energies slipped around her like a cool, spring breeze …

_~ flicker ~_

… spreading below her, a blue ocean stretched to the horizon … looking down, she could see far below the tiny 'T' shape of Titans' Tower …

_~ flicker ~_

… for long moments she didn't know what she was seeing … a fuzzy, lenticular shape, the object had a well-defined bar across its center, with half a dozen spirals trailing off them … then it hit her: this was her home galaxy, viewed from a couple of galactic diameters away …

_~ flicker ~_

… what wasn't darkness was red fire … pits and chasms and barren mountains could be dimly glimpsed … a huge, hulking figure, hunched over one of the pits, stirring the coals within … the creature stirred, stiffened, whirled to look behind it, directly at her, its four red eyes narrowed in suspicion …

_~ flicker ~_

… the white light consumed her universe … her spirit swelled, as if unable to contain such brilliant, un-nameable tides of joy … she floated past the sky for the sheer ecstasy of it … new vistas opened on her sight, new lands, new people, new experiences … she would know them all, understand them all, love them all …

####

When her eyes opened, she was in the cave, near the opening to the huge crystal. Jinx's face filled her vision, the pink eyes dilated with worry. Their gazes locked; Jinx gave a soft cry and hugged Rachel to her. The empath clung to her like a drowning man to a thrown rope.

"I was so worried! You've been out for … for a long time. Hours!" She kissed Rachel's forehead. "Are you okay? How do you feel? Does it hurt? You don't have a scar or anything. Did it hurt? You just disappeared, and I didn't know where you were until K'Naa woke me up and we here and you looked dead and I …"

Rachel stopped the logorrhea with a kiss. That developed into several, and a few minutes passed in this pleasant activity until they both had to stop for breath. Rachel chuckled. "Yes, I'm okay. No, it didn't hurt. It felt … amazing. Wonderful. It was erotic and uplifting and mind-blowing and … and I … I want to do it again."

Jinx's eyebrows rose. "Serious?"

"As death and taxes. That was … indescribable."

"So what happened?"

"I … wow. Yeah. I was teleporting."

"Where to?"

"Everywhere. Outside the galaxy. To another dimension. Oh, Jinx! This is fantastic! You're going to love it!" She looked around. "K'Naa? When can we do that again?"

Jinx could tell when K'Naa 'showed up'. Rachel's eyes took on a glow. The tips of her hair lifted slightly in an un-felt breeze.

**O, young Sentients!**

**This is a Glorious Day!**

**Come, celebrate with me!**

**You, young Sentient Rachel,**

**Will be my Ambassador**

**To the Galaxy.**

**All my calculations Proven!**

**All my wildest Hopes Realized!**

**You have potential beyond Knowing,**

**Your Spirit a scope beyond Telling.**

**And as you have shared with me,**

**I also share with you.**

**You will achieve a Control**

**Past anything you had imagined.**

**And you, young Sentient Jinx,**

**I can see now clearly,**

**You will command a Power**

**That only gods have known.**

**Your lesson is next.**

**But now I must rest.**

**Sleep. Sleep.**

Then she was gone. Rachel smiled sleepily at Jinx. "Hey, you. You tired?"

"Exhausted. But now that I know you're safe …"

"Mmhmm. Time t' sleep, like th' lady said." And fitting actions to words, she curled up and closed her eyes. Jinx spooned up behind her and soon joined her in slumber.


	18. Depression

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (While this story is my own invention, most of the characters in it are not. The Teen Titans were conceived, birthed, and brought to a semblance of adulthood by the good folks at DC Comics. They are the ones with the copyrights, and the lawyers to back them up, and they will – please believe this – get no argument from me. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 18_

…  _Earth … four and a half months after the Transition Event …_

About two klicks east of Jump City there is an old limestone quarry. For the first half of the Twentieth Century it produced gravel and crusher-run and some of the raw materials that go into Portland cement. It employed close to two hundred workers in its heyday, all of whom bent their wills to digging as deeply as they could, until the limestone played out in the Sixties.

Jump City bought it for a song when the company that owned the land found itself in financial straits in 1977, and set it up as a landfill for the nearest five counties. It hadn't escaped the city planner's notice that water wouldn't pool in the massive hole; cracks in the rock lead to fissures that connect to a cave system, so the quarry stays dry. The "Big Ditch" has served as a communal dumping ground for close to three decades now, and still the bottom is barely covered.

A single road leads to the tipping spot at a point on the hole's southern rim. Trucks drive in every day to get rid of the detritus of life that no one considers worth recycling: old furniture, construction waste, yard trash, a few types of thermoset plastic, that sort of thing. Other than the steady stream of garbage haulers, no one comes out here. The landscape is uninspiring, the security fencing well designed, and the penalties for trespassing steep. But none of that matters to the slight, blond geomancer currently sitting on the edge of the northern rim of this great scar on the land.

_They just don't get it. None of them. They don't understand and they don't care enough to find out._

Terra stared off into the gray infinity of the opposite wall. If she un-focused her eyes just a touch, all sense of depth and proportion vanished, and she could imagine that there really was a limitless distance between her and the rest of the world.

_If only that were true. If I could just let go and fall forever …_

The afternoon sun burned hot against her scalp; a drop of sweat would bead up along her hairline a few times a minute, and then make its way down her face. Multiple lighter-colored tracks left evidence of their passing, her face not being all that clean at the moment.

She blinked, and the scratchy stiffness around her eyes got her attention.  _How long was I just sitting and staring?_  Rubbing at her face with the back of one grubby hand, she slowly stood and moved to the very edge, gazing down into the roughly-circular chasm. The city had a sign posted at the truck entrance that gave some statistics about the quarry: when it was begun (1879), how many cubic yards of gravel had been removed (over sixteen and a half billion), and so on and so forth. Having read the sign, she knew that from where she currently stood to the quarry floor was very nearly two kilometers. It would take about fourteen seconds for an object dropped off the edge to fall that far. She knew this from personal experience.

The first time was terrifying, and she had called the rocks to her after no more than four seconds. But it got easier after that. Now she had no fear of heights, and, increasingly no fear of death. Slowly her arms came up, her eyes closed, her head leaned back … and she fell forward in a long, graceful arc.

The quarry was full of swifts, the sleek, black birds flitting here and there in constant motion. A few of them moved aside to let her hurtling form pass. She had her limbs spread wide to stretch this out as long as possible. It wasn't necessary for her to watch the ground as it rushed up; she could sense it more accurately with her power.

_Will it happen this time?_

Terraced gray walls blurred past, the occasional tuft of green showing through where a stubborn plant had dug in against all reason. The air whipping by dried the sweat on her face, bringing a welcome cooling from the depths.

_Do I still care enough to stop it?_

This side of the quarry was steeper than the others, its rim less accessible, its floor jagged with broken boulders. It was in this rocky jumble that water always leaked out after a rain. Terra could have (had she felt like bothering) used her powers to trace out their paths. But that was not, you might say, at the top of her to-do list.

_Can I just let it end?_

This time, when the panic seized her, she was less than eighty meters from the ground and traveling at nearly a hundred and forty klicks. The bottom erupted in huge gouts of earth and rock, some streaking upward to wrap around her, others forming a crude ramp. She decelerated as fast as her body could stand it, and still hit the ramp at nine meters per second. It was not as smooth as it might have been; she skidded and tumbled, instantly disoriented, and came to an abrupt stop in the lower corner.

Several minutes passed while she lay there, motionless, her breathing shallow, tears leaking from closed eyes. She didn't think anything was broken, but couldn't dredge up enough concern about it to check.

_Worthless_ _!_

Her mind shouted at her. She couldn't stop it.

_Weak and worthless and stupid and ugly and crazy!_ _**Why** _ _are you still alive?_ _**Why** _ _can't you do this one,_ _**simple** _ _thing? Are you so inept that you can't get even_ _**one thing** _ _right? You're_ _worthless_ _!_

She lay there at the bottom of the quarry until shadow crept over its edge and covered her with its soft mantle.

####

…  _The Rift …_

If Desaad had valued his soul just  _slightly_  less, he would have tossed in the sponge by now.

Stars in this forsaken, stellar wasteland were rarely closer than twenty parsecs apart, and much more commonly at least fifty. Between them stretched clouds of monatomic dust thick enough to completely obscure objects as near as five parsecs distant. The stars were a mix of old and young, dwarf and giant, and there were at least two black holes that had to be given a wide berth. They had the survey maps that had been crafted some forty years back, but those had proven unreliable in some respects. Stars moved, especially in conditions such as these, where many of the stellar denizens were 'just passing through' and weren't part of a cluster.

Darkseid had supplied him with parametric coordinates to define the boundaries of his search, but that still commanded a volume of space in excess of a hundred thousand cubic parsecs. He'd been directed to search  _every last star_  in that area, and to do so exhaustively. He knew that meant investigating every possible scrap of technology they discovered, not missing a single planet of a single star … even if it was blatantly obvious that the planet in question could in no wise be the source of the warp anomaly.

Take this one, for example. This place was truly bizarre. First off, it was orbiting a blue giant, a rare occurrence under the best of circumstances. It was over a billion and a half klicks from its primary, yet had a tidally-stabilized rotation, which made no sense at all, since that was a situation typically found in planets that were very close to their stars, or moons very close to their planets. Also, it received enough energy from the star to support life, but nothing higher than complex plants. And besides all that, it barely registered on their magnetic equipment, which meant it had to be woefully light in metals. Basically, a worthless ball of dirt.

Sighing grimly to himself, he had his men initiate a scan. One had to keep up appearances …

####

Rachel could tell by the gentle rise and fall of Jinx's chest that the hyperactive girl snuggled up next to her was nearly asleep. She trailed fingers through the soft, pink hair, brushing it away from her flushed face where a bit of afterglow still lingered.

 _This is so much like a dream. We have no distractions, no one chasing us or making weird demands … well, if you don't count killing each other every few sleeps._  She chuckled quietly to herself.  _We keep talking about 'going back', as if that is some sort of desirable end. But would that really be better than this? I honestly can't see how._

**You seem troubled, young Sentient Rachel.**

"Oh, I don't know that I'd couch it in quite that way. I'm just … see, we're having such a good time here, and I'm … a little concerned, I guess, that things will seem strange when we return to Earth."

**No doubt, they will.**

**But Life is Change,**

**And Change is Life.**

**You will adapt.**

**Humans excel at that.**

"Ha! Truly." She gazed lovingly at Jinx. "I have certainly adapted to  _this_  situation without any trouble, and if someone had told me a few months ago that I'd be hopelessly in love with a member of the H.I.V.E. Five, I'd have had him committed in a …"

**Young Sentient Rachel,**

**I must ask you to trust me now.**

A sudden trepidation flooded the empath's spirit at K'Naa's tone. "What do you mean?"

**There is someone**

**Who is Searching for you.**

**I must hide you.**

"Searching? But who …"

Rachel slumped over onto Jinx. Their higher brain functions then quickly damped to a 'maintenance-only' level.

####

While it is true that the extreme boredom of their task had taken some of Desaad's edge these past weeks, he was by no means asleep. He caught a sudden hesitation on the part of one of the sensory techs. Stepping over to the man, he barked, "Report!"

"Your Grace, I … the alpha-wave detector pinged … but then it went away."

"Meaning?"

"I don't know, Your Grace. It isn't supposed to do that." He punched in several codes and recalibrated his system. "Perhaps the star's radiation caused a malfunction."

"What  _real_  conditions could have caused that blip?"

"… Ah … maybe … if there was only one sentient being in range of the sensors, Your Grace, and that being died as soon as the sensors pinged him … maybe?" He rapped his knuckles on the console in frustration, stopping instantly when he noticed Desaad glowering at him. "That is all I can think of, Your Grace."

"So then you are saying that there had to be an intelligent being on that planet, if only for the briefest of times, to ping the detector?"

"I … well, yes. This instrument is very mature technology, Your Grace. It would not register an alpha wave unless there was one to register … unless there was a hardware problem, but my calibration showed it working perfectly. Your Grace."

Desaad turned to a monitor showing the surface of the planet below them. It was monotonously regular, with low mountains, plains, seas, and scrub forest on the daylight side, and a frozen desert on the dark half. No birds flew through its air, no lizards crawled through its grass, no fish swam in its waters. There weren't even any analogs to insects. The planet contained no motile life whatsoever … that they could detect.

Unless someone was being very, very  _cagey_. Desaad despised  _cagey_ , unless he was the one doing it.

He turned back to the technician. "Prepare a sensory sphere."

"Yes, Your Grace."

"Drop it in the middle of the daylight side. Set it to ping us on a secure frequency if any more alpha waves show up."

"Very good, Your Grace." The tech hastened to execute the order.

A few hours later, his ship rejoined the rest of the task force and they sped off in the general direction of where they hoped the next star was.

####

Much time passed. Nothing on the world moved except in the cavern where Jinx and Rachel lay. There, the soft moss began slowly to undulate, moving the girls into comfortable positions and then wrapping them, cocoon-fashion. The moss changed, altering on a molecular level, enzymes and hormones and catalysts and proteins of dizzying complexity being formed and fitted, assuming nearly all nutrient-intake and waste-disposal duties. They were safe and warm, their dreams pleasant.

Meanwhile, K'Naa examined the object the intruders had left. She took her time, not wishing to confirm any tiny portion of that awful being's suspicions. Eventually, after achieving a very high degree of understanding in regards to the sphere, she absorbed it, transporting it to the center of her world where she wrapped it in thick layers of stone. Finally, once she was sure it couldn't communicate, she crushed it to powder.

Then she took a few cycles to think about what she had learned from the mind of that hideous ogre in charge of the search. They knew of the Transition Events. The ogre's master – a being even more foul than he, if that could be believed – wanted the secret of the long-range warp. He was a creature of immense technical advancement, but spiritually bereft, his thoughts turning only and always to evil and destruction and cruelty and control. He would not be able to conceive of an organic being capable of creating a warp field of that size and power. He would be convinced, to his last atom, that a highly-advanced culture, using highly-advanced technology, was the author of the warp anomaly.

K'Naa decided that she could turn that to her advantage. She lovingly considered the two girls now wrapped, literally, in her embrace. There was so much untapped potential there! Perhaps there was more to this situation than just a method for returning them to their home and gaining contact with other wise races. Perhaps it was time to take their training in a new direction.


	19. Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Oh, say, can you see  
> Where the Titans might be  
> Who so proudly take flight,  
> Jump City to rescue?
> 
> They are not mine to own,  
> Movies, print, or cartoon,  
> And the stories I write  
> Are for my pleasure only.
> 
> And the lawyers' red glare,  
> Restraining orders they bear  
> E'er proclaiming their rights  
> Are secured everywhere!
> 
> And the DC Comics banner  
> In victory they wave  
> O'er the copyright fee  
> And the money they saved.
> 
> -Concolor, with blushing apologies to Francis Scott Key)

_CHAPTER 19_

…  _Titans' Tower … four and a half months after the Transition Event …_

It took Starfire a few days, once she'd returned from Tamaran, to convince Robin that the covert aspect of her mission hadn't been compromised. She showed him the 'old-woman' disguise she'd adopted, and he had to admit that even he would have a hard time recognizing her. He called in a favor with the Watchtower, and had them monitor the transmissions from Tamaran for a couple of days. Nothing out of the ordinary was being broadcast. Blackfire was still 'out of town on business' (he knew from a number of sources that her preferred methods of diplomacy were orgies, blackmail, and assassinations, in no particular order) and hadn't left any special instructions beyond the usual. So at last he was reasonably sure that Earth wouldn't have to fend off a Tamaranian police fleet coming after his girlfriend.

Girlfriend.  _ **That**_  concept she had cemented quite firmly in the days – and especially the nights – since her ship got back. It would seem that the custom on Tamaran, once a love relationship was declared, was for the lovers in question to spend as much time as feasible screwing each other silly. The warlike nature of their people meant that, to keep them from dying out, new generations had to be encouraged. Of course  _that_  facet of it didn't apply to  _them_. There was no way in  _hell_  that the two races could cross-breed, so they never had to worry about birth control. But apart from DNA compatibility, they were extremely well-matched.

They'd been proving that to each other for close to two hours this evening, and were taking a break now to catch their breath. Star's head was pillowed on Dick's chiseled stomach, her right shoulder tucked against his side; his left hand trailed up and down her back in a desultory manner, alternately scratching and lightly tickling. Occasional low moans and grunts told him how much she was enjoying that.

"Hey, Kori?"

She turned over to face him, her emerald-green eyes glowing in the low light of his room, and gave him an expectant look.

"Will you marry me?"

That brilliant smile graced her features. "Yes, my dearest Richard. Gladly."

"I was hoping you'd say that." His smile answered hers.

"When would you like to enact the Ceremony of Joining?"

"Pretty soon, if that's okay with you. Is there anything you need to … I dunno, get  _cleared_  with the Tamaranian end of things?"

That question banked her smile. "No. I do not believe there will be any problems. I will need to inform the Embassy of Tamaran of our plans. But since I am exile, and have no official position with the government, they have no say in what I do." Her gaze dropped. "As long as I do not return to Tamaran."

He reached over and caressed her cheek. "I'm sorry, Darling. That was thoughtless. I didn't mean to bring up …"

"No, my love, it is not a thing you did. This has been keeping on my mind … ever since I saw Tamaran."

"Do you miss it much?"

"I miss … the way it was when I was young. The way it is now … is not a good thing."

"Oh?"

She narrowed her eyes, thinking hard, and then slid up so that her head was on his shoulder. "Do you remember when I told you that Komand'r was not being a bad queen for Tamaran?"

"Yeah, sure. You said that right before you left."

"I did. But … my information was not …  _current_. I saw things on Tamaran …" She blew a long sigh. "The people are no longer happy. There is much that is wrong with my home planet now. Komand'r has created a secret police force. They spy on the citizens. They arrest those who do not agree with her. She has become … very suspicious of everyone."

"Paranoid?"

"Yes, that is the word. She had her entire Cadre of Advisors imprisoned. She thinks many people are trying to take her from the throne. But they are not! Tamaranians are a loyal and truthful people." She snuggled a little closer to him. "Except for my sister."

He held her close for a while, turning these revelations over in his mind. "You've been wondering what you can do about it, haven't you?"

The eyes she turned his way sparkled with unshed tears. "They are my people. I have a responsibility to them."

"But what can you do as an exile?"

"That is the thing that becomes the block of stumbling." She wiped at her eyes briefly, then held up a finger. "On the one side of the coin, I could stay here and do nothing. I am exile. I cannot return to Tamaran."

"Legally."

"Yes. Legally." Another finger went up. "The other side of the coin is that my people need me. I am in line,  _legally_ , for the throne. If Komand'r dies, I must take her place as queen. There is no choice. The law of succession does not recognize terms of exile."

"Does Komand'r  _have_  to die for that to come about?"

"She must die, or give up the throne willingly."

"You guys don't have some sort of …  _mechanism_  for getting rid of a bad ruler?"

"There is one way. If the Cadre of Advisors unanimously proclaims that the ruler is unfit to rule the people, then they can take control of the military and force the queen out."

"Uh-oh. That's why she stuck them all in prison, isn't it?"

"Yes. They were about to convene a vote of confidence."

"Whooo." He stroked her hair. "What about if she were to … disappear."

Turning a frown his way, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"If she just turned up missing. You know, didn't come down to breakfast, bed not slept in, and can't be found anywhere."

"Are you suggesting that she would be kidnapped?"

"In roundabout terms. But not necessarily. If she … got lost somewhere and could never find her way back. What then?"

"That is a very strange question, Richard."

"It's hypothetical."

She gave him that slight frown again. "I have been a Titan for some years, Richard. I may not be completely comfortable with the customs of Earth, or the idioms of your languages, but I am neither stupid nor blind." She leaned toward him in emphasis. " _ **You**_  do not 'do' hypothetical. If you ask this question, you must have some concrete reason for so doing."

"Okay. Fair enough. Let's say that I did have a bit of creative kidnapping in mind. What would the government do if she disappeared?"

"Without the Cadre, the next leaders in line are the General Military Hegemons. She is the supreme commander of the armies, but they direct the battles." She thought that over and said, "They would probably free the Cadre. They do not have authority to place me on the throne, but the Cadre does."

"So they would free the Cadre, and the Cadre would … what, recall you from exile?"

"… They could do that. Yes. Truly they could. It was done on two previous occasions. When Ban'glerok'k the Short was captured by the Silluw Consortium, they cut off his hands and feet and removed his eyes, so the Cadre deemed him unfit to rule. His nephew was pulled from prison and enthroned, and had a long and beneficial rule. Then when Tror'logg'n of Kray became traitor and defected to the Haahn, he was officially declared dead, even though he was leading their navy at the time. He had no offspring. He had exiled his father to a prison planet. They sent for him and installed him in Tror'logg'n's stead." She turned a thoughtful face his way. "It could be done. If she were missing for long enough."

"Good!"

"But how can this be not-hypothetical?"

He was only silent for a second before saying, "I'm just thinking of contingency plans, Sweetheart. For later, when we can do something about it."

"… We?"

"If we are married, Koriand'r of Tamaran, we become one flesh, two people sharing a common self. What is important to you is important to me. What you need to do, I need to be involved with as well. If you need to do this for your people, I will be by your side while you do it."

Her eyes overflowed into her growing smile. "I love you so much!"

He gave her a reassuring squeeze. "I know. And it's really nice how that works out, since I love you back."

"Let us do the lovemaking again."

"I thought you'd never ask."

"No, my love, my Richard,  _that_  you truly did not."

"You're right. I'm a terrible liar. It's because …"

She cut off any further discussion with a kiss.

####

…  _Newark, New Jersey … midnight …_

The Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal is a major import point for the eastern United States. Over a hundred billion dollars worth of goods flow through it every year. As such, it has one of the world's highest concentrations of warehouses with automated-storage-and-retrieval systems. In less than a day these robotic, computer-controlled marvels can take two hundred of the huge, steel, modular boxes off a container ship, process them into the Port, and stow the contents away in the associated warehouses without a human ever needing to touch them. Ergo, few humans are ever around. A setup like this naturally lends itself to use by those who don't want their business known to the general public. Case in point …

Six men moved furtively through the shadows behind one of the enormous warehouses. They walked in two groups of three, and in each group, two men – two  _large_  men – carried automatic weapons. The group in the lead stopped at an unremarkable door; the man who wasn't packing an Uzi pulled out a key ring and chose one.

His counterpart in the other group, referring to the Port customs agents, asked, "Hey, Turner, how'd ya get it past the Blues?"

Morton Turner worked his cigar to the corner of his mouth. "Three large."

"Even Beckman?"

"Nah. We know where Beckman lives. He got  _real_  blind since we showed him a photo of his kids playin' in their back yard. Ain't gotta pay him shit."

The other man chuckled.

The door yielded to his key, and the six filed into the gloom. Two of them produced flashlights, which showed them to be in a wide hallway that ran along the outside of the building. This they followed for three dozen meters until they stopped in front of another locked door, which opened onto a much narrower corridor, lined with small storage rooms. Pulling the outer door carefully closed, they walked down to the fifth room on the left. It had a padlock. Turner had the key. The other four men unlimbered a large backpack each.

Turner asked, "Got yer scale?"

"Ain't studyin' no scale. Grover knows you ain't gonna short  _him_. An'  _you_  know what'll happen if ya do."

Turner grunted assent.

The storage room had wide double-doors that opened outward. The men had to stand against the opposite wall to allow them to open fully. When the two flashlights were directed into the space revealed, all six men started in shock.

Then something fell among them. The flashlights were jerked from their hands and snapped off, plunging the group into absolute blackness. One of the guns was fired, a short staccato of reports that ended with a wet, choked scream. The brief strobe of illumination from the muzzle flash served only to disorient the rest of them. Then there was a thick, hard  _ **schunk**_  sound, followed by a strangled moan, and the gun in question clattered to the floor. In quick succession, three ripping slashes sent three bodies tumbling to the floor. And then Morton Turner was the last man standing.

"… Boyd? Charlie? You there?" He held a pistol he'd pulled as soon as the lights went out, a J-frame .38 that fit snugly into his shoulder holster. But he never had a target, so he hadn't yet fired it. "Boyd, c'mon, say sumpn!" There was a tiny, scuffling noise off to his right. He jerked the pistol in that direction, and it was promptly twisted from his grip. He screamed, backpedaled, and tripped over a corpse, going down hard and wrenching his knee badly. He sat there, leaning hard against the wall, holding the throbbing limb, and gasping in fear. Then one of the flashlights came back on, shining directly into his eyes. He blinked and looked away.

"God, you're pathetic."

He held up a hand, trying to see who it was that held the light, but a vague silhouette was all that was visible. "Who  _are_  you? Whaddaya want? You want the coke? You got it, man, just take it!"

"Sad. Pathetic  _ **and**_  stupid. That's a combination that needs culling." The light came his way, and the man holding it knelt in front of him. "And I've got just the thing."

Turner still couldn't make out the man's face, but he sounded young. He was about to say something else when a small, hard package landed on his lap. " _ **Aihh!**_ "

"Oh, for fuck's sake! Ya big sissy."

Turner realized almost at once that the object was a half-kilo bag of cocaine, possibly the only one left that hadn't been torn open and poured out into the storage room. He picked it up.

"Open it."

Cautiously, sweat pouring down his back, Turner unwrapped the cake of white crystal.

"Now … eat it."

"… What?"

"Eat it. A vendor shouldn't be afraid to use his own product. Just eat it."

"… but … but that stuff's … it ain't been cut!"

"Yeah, so?"

"I can't eat that! It'll … it …"

"Heh. Yeah. How 'bout that?"

In a mad haze of fear, Turner threw the cocaine at the figure, but he was no longer there. The flashlight fell to the floor, revealing the grisly corpse of Grover's number-two man, his chest cavity yawning open, and Turner jerked away in terror, only to have something massive and rough grab him by the head and pull him to his feet. He looked up … up … to meet the chilling, slit-eyed gaze of a creature that had been dead for better than seventy million years. He gasped, and fainted.

With a snort of disgust, the saurian clenched its fingers. There was a quick  _splurt_  of blood and brain matter, and then Gar Logan was wiping his hand off on the coat of one of the dead men. He took the briefcase of money, retrieved the keys from Turner's belt, and carefully locked both sets of doors as he left. While flying away a few minutes later, he dropped the keys into the bay.

####

Whipping by below in a green-brown blur, the landscape of K'Naa gave Rachel a good idea of how fast she was going. She just didn't quite believe it.

The planet was nearly 114,000 kilometers around, and the empath had discovered that she could now circumnavigate her host in a little over three hours. A rough mental calculation put that speed at about Mach 30.  _How am I not shooting off into space? How am I not burning up from atmospheric friction? How …_

**Dear young Sentient Rachel,**

**Do not be distressed.**

With a thought, she halted her impossible flight, hovering motionless in the air. "K'Naa! This is amazing! I never dreamed …

**Yes, young Sentient Rachel,**

**This is a most Impressive Display.**

**But it is as Nothing**

  
**Beside what you** _**Will** _ **do.**   


The empath stared thoughtfully at the distant horizon. At length, she said, "K'Naa?"

**Yes, dear Child?**

"Am I … limiting myself again?"

**If you understand enough**

**To ask that Question,**

**You must already know**

**The Answer.**

Rachel nodded slowly to herself. Fixing her eyes on as distant a point as she could see, she exercised her will, and …

… she was there. Initial shock segued instantly into a delighted laugh. This bore no resemblance to her former mode of teleportation, especially in that she did not need to use her soul-self to do it. She checked on it again, finding it happily tucked up, deep inside her mind, content in its one-ness. "K'Naa! Did you see that?"

**I did indeed, Child.**

**You are learning.**

"That's what you were talking about! Thank you so much!" She chose another spot, and vanished.

####

Jinx looked askance at the object she held. "Are you sure I'm ready for this?"

  
**I am sure of** _**Nothing** _   


**Apart from my Love.**

  
**But I** _**Expect** _   


**That you have the Talent**

**To perform this Task.**

"Heh. Great Expectations."

**A fine Work.**

**The Author was a Man**

**Of Deep Wisdom.**

"I guess. I never read it."

**That is your Loss.**

**And you are**

**Avoiding the Question.**

**Your most recent Realignment**

**Has altered the Parameters.**

**You have the Ability.**

**You need only let it Be.**

"Sorry! Sorry. My bad." She looked again at the rock in her two hands. It massed probably four or five kilos, a rough, dirty ovoid that looked a little like feldspar. Dirty feldspar.

_Okay, Jinxy-cat, time to get serious._

_Hah. As serious as you_ _**ever** _ _get._

_Hey, I can be all decorous and staid and stuff when I want to be!_

_Oh, really? Give me an example._

_Well, there was … um, that is, when I … well, darn, lemme think._

_Don't hurt yourself._

_Bitch!_

_You lost concentration again._

"Dammit!" Jinx drew a frustrated breath and stared hard at the rock.  _Okay, K'Naa said to just visualize the outcome and let it go. Rachel said I was over-thinking it again. Guess that's a habit. But if I just think about what it's_ _ **supposed**_ _to be, then all the stuff it_ _ **isn't**_ _supposed to be will fall away, and I'll get … whoa …_

Pink sparks crackled along her arms, racing to the rock. There was a brief flash of light, dust exploded off the rock, and Jinx was holding a perfect, two-kilogram oval-faceted emerald. "Oh,  _ **yeah!**_   That's the shit!"

**And now you Know how it may be Accomplished.**

"Damn straight! You were right, this shit's easy!" Narrowing her eyes just a bit, she used her hex energy to call another rock to her. It wasn't quite as big as the other one, and fit in one hand. She closed her eyes and calmed herself.

**Young Sentient Jinx,**

**Are you sure about this?**

"Like you said, K'Naa, only thing I'm sure of is love. But I'll never know if I don't try."

The planetary intelligence made no reply, only watching and waiting.

Jinx stood there, calm, serene, collected. A quiver of a smile graced her mouth. Her arm was steady, relaxed even, as she visualized and elaborated and embellished and bent her will to the stone …

The crackling, pink energy began to build. She seemed to be drawing it from the earth, and it mounded up until the air around her danced and wavered in the flow.

With a slight rush of wind, Rachel was there. She stood, watching Jinx, her eyes round. "Honey? What are you doing?"

Jinx didn't reply.

**You can see what she is Attempting.**

**Can you see what is Lacking?**

"… I …" She closed her eyes, feeling around the edges of Jinx's magic with her mind. "Yes. Oh, my."

**Go to her.**

Rachel, who was nearly stiff in the knowledge of K'Naa's trembling anticipation, floated over to face her lover. Jinx felt her and made a place for the empath in her mind. Snuggling in, she examined Jinx's intentions, making a few suggestions, and adding her own power …

The flash of light that obscured Jinx's hand faded to reveal a small, white bird. It shook out its feathers, preened itself twice, and cocked its head, the shiny, black eye meeting exultant pink ones. Then it took to the sky.

**You did it!**

**My Child, my sweet, wonderful Child,**

**You did it!**

**You are a Maker!**

Both girls caught the implied capital on that word. Jinx asked, "What do you mean?"

**I told you, did I not,**

**That you would wield Power**

**Known only to gods?**

"Damn. You did. Is that what you meant?"

**It is but a Taste, my Child.**

The girls looked at each other. Rachel grinned. "So now, when you make me say, 'oh, god!', you can say, 'Yes?'"

Jinx popped her on the arm. "Smart ass."


	20. Decisions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (All references to 'Titans' or 'Teen Titans' or any of the characters pertaining thereunto are made without the consent, authorization, permission, approval, sanction, say-so, agreement, endorsement, authority, submission, blessing, backing, acquiescence, okey-dokey, compliance, or any other form of holy-water-shaking that might be considered acknowledgement that this story exists. 'cause it DOESN'T as far as DC is concerned. But that will change if I ever hit the PowerBall Lottery! [insert maniacal laughter] -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 20_

…  _elsewhere …_

_This would be a good time for a sunset … if K'Naa ever_ _had_ _sunsets._  Jinx stood on the highest point on the outside of the gargantuan crystal, staring off into the distance, her arms crossed under her breasts. She'd been here for a while, long enough to run out of tears.  _Stupid. How could you be so stupid?_

"It's not stupid to want something glorious, Sweetie."

Jinx didn't turn. She'd felt Rachel approaching. "I jumped the gun big time, though."

"Maybe so. But you didn't do any harm, and we both learned a lot."

"I let K'Naa down."

"Don't be ridiculous. You couldn't let her down if you tried. And the point is, you  _didn't_. You made …  _ **we**_  made a mistake. That's all. People do it all the time."

Jinx opened her right hand and looked down at what she held. "Mistakes aren't supposed to kill things, though."

"It wasn't  _technically_  alive. So it couldn't  _technically_  die."

The answer came as a whisper. "It sure did feel like it was alive."

Rachel moved forward and slid her arms around Jinx's waist, leaning her head against the taller girl's back. "I know. It felt that way to me, too."

"I'm sorry I dragged you into …"

" _Stop it!"_  She squeezed Jinx firmly. "Just … just stop it. You didn't. If you'll bend a brain cell or two in that direction, you'll remember that _ **I**_  dragged  _ **you**_  along on this little trip. The fact that it all turned out well doesn't lessen the fact that it's my fault you're here."

"If that's supposed to make me feel better …"

"No, Sweetie, but it  _is_  supposed to make you see the truth. It wasn't really a bird. Sure, it looked like one, and it acted like one … for a while. 'Til it ran out of … whatever it was that was powering it."

"Spirit. Essence-of-soul. Go-juice. I dunno. Something I stuck in it. But it was a sham."

"No, not really. Not a sham. It was an experiment that didn't pan out." She took hold of Jinx and turned her around. "And I might add  **'yet'**  to that sentence."

Jinx wouldn't meet her eyes. "I don't … Rae, look. I got carried away, okay? That was a bad idea." She sniffled and then drew a steadying breath. "You used a word on me one time when we fought. I looked it up later, because if somebody's gonna insult me, I want to know what she's saying. Anyhow, the word was _hubris_. You said I had a shitload of hubris to think the Titans would let me just dance out of the museum with that idol. That's what I did this time. My stupid pride got the better of me, and I tried to pretend to be God, and that's just wrong."

"Wrong to want to accomplish great things?"

"No. Wrong to go about it that way. Wrong to try to impress K'Naa with a stupid parlor trick. Wrong to skip about  _a thousand steps_  that I really, really need to get right before … well … I just do."

Rachel sighed and pulled the girl into a warm embrace. "Yeah. I know. It's not like I haven't been there." Malchior flitted across her mind, but she stomped him back down ruthlessly. She was  _ **not**_  going to rent him any space in her psyche. "As I believe I already mentioned, we all make mistakes. We're human." She chuckled. "Well, sort of. Close enough. And hell, Honey, even K'Naa makes mistakes once in a while. Cut yourself some slack."

"That would be easier if the evidence weren't staring at me." She held the ersatz bird up in front of Rachel's nose, which promptly wrinkled.

"Maybe we can just … reabsorb it? It  _ **is**_  made of our soul-stuff after all."

Jinx nibbled on her lower lip for a moment. "We should ask."

**If this is truly your Wish**

**You may do so.**

**But I will be most Happy**

**To take the Burden from you,**

**To return it to the Primal Essence**

**From which it was drawn.**

The girls looked at each other. Rachel nodded. Jinx slumped a little. "Okay. That would probably be best. Then I couldn't screw it up."

**You are much too severe with yourself,**

**Young Sentient Jinx.**

**Your Love is correct.**

**We all make Mistakes.**

**If we can learn from them,**

**Then all will be well.**

Jinx laughed. "As many mistakes as  _I've_  made, I ought to be a fucking  _genius_  by now."

"Go ahead and give her the bird, Honey."

Jinx looked at it, regret etched on her face, for a few moments. Then she exercised her will, and the bird was lofted on a pink cloud of energy. It rose to the zenith and disappeared.

"There. Feel better yet?"

"No."

She patted the girl. "You will." Rachel began bleeding tendrils of soul-self that wrapped the two of them in soft blackness and transported them down and into the cavern, where they were deposited on the springy moss. The soul-self retracted, and the two girls were lying face to face. Rachel caressed her lover's cheek, moving the pink hair out of the way. "I'm going to make love to you now. This isn't because we have to. It isn't because K'Naa needs the energy. This is just because I love you and I want to make you feel really good." And she leaned in to kiss the trembling lips.

Jinx pulled her into a tight embrace. "Works for me." And the two girls were lost in each other until they fell into a tired, happy, and very relaxed sleep a long time later.

####

…  _the Watchtower …_

Dr. Anthony Baker looked around at the others seated with him at the conference table. "So then, we are in agreement?"

Wonder Woman, Dr. Fate, J'onn J'onzz, Cyborg, Batman, and Tonn'kiarr, the scientist who had accompanied Starfire back from Tamaran, looked at each other. There was a slow nodding of heads. Tonn'kiarr said, "The data are irrefutable. That disturbance on Wyogg's World confirms the vector. We know within five arc-seconds where the warp originated."

"And," added Cyborg, "we have a decent idea of how far away that point is." He shook his head. "Though I'll tell you, man, those numbers make my head hurt."

Tonn'kiarr gave a curt laugh. "I count us fortunate that the point of origin is still within our galaxy. At least we have some small hope of finding it."

"But do you still consider that wise?" asked Dr. Fate. "This has been going on for close to a million years. They have made no overtures to anyone apart from a kidnapping every hundred years or so. They obviously like their privacy. Surely a culture with this capability would be able to defend itself."

"What defend?" asked Wonder Woman incredulously. "We aren't planning an invasion! We just want to talk."

Batman intoned, "They may very well  _consider_  that an invasion."

Cyborg crossed his arms. "Well sittin' here on our keisters ain't gonna cut it. I mean, look, they did take Raven. We gotta do something! We owe her that much." He cut a glance down the table at Dr. Fate. "Even if she  _is_  happy there."

"I concur," said Dr. Baker. "At the very least we need to make them aware that we know what they are doing. If they have no ill will toward us, they certainly should not object to that; if they do – and I am not saying that they do – we need to know that as well." He gave a keen look to everyone else at the table. "A culture that can devote that level of power to something that seems to me to be little more than a science experiment is one that bears watching."

"Which brings up another point," said Wonder Woman. "We are Earth's protectors, not its leaders. If we are going to go about making contact with a potentially dangerous race, we need the approval of our leaders."

Cyborg groaned. "Oh, God."

"Which one would you like to appeal to? I know several personally."

"No, he has a point," interjected Batman. "On a topic of such importance, it will be unlikely that we could gain consensus. Debate could rage on for years." He caught Tonn'kiarr's eye. "What about Tamaran? You have a much more streamlined government and …"

"Hah! Under no circumstances. Our queen, so-called, is one of the  _last_  people I would want to involve. The thought of that paranoid harridan being a first-contact simply does not bear consideration."

"Duly noted." He looked over at the Martian Manhunter. "J'onn?"

"I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the people of Mars would have zero interest in this venture."

Wonder Woman had a thoughtful look on her face. "Perhaps we should contact the Guardians."

Batman canted his head her way, asking in an incredulous tone, "That bunch? They barely tolerate Hal having anything to do with  _ **us**_ , and specifically informed him that the Transition Events aren't his business."

Her perfect eyebrows climbed marginally. "They did? I wasn't aware of that."

He made a small, disgusted noise. "You know they have their own agenda. If they haven't involved themselves yet, it's because they don't want to."

"I see. Well. Can you think of any other potential representatives for such a mission?"

There was silence around the table.

"I thought not. Which dumps it right back into Earth's lap."

"Yes," agreed Batman with a heavy sigh. "I'd call that a true and accurate statement."

Cyborg objected, "But there ain't hardly anybody outside the League and the Titans that knows the Transition Event even  _happened!_  You know we spun 'em a fairy tale about fault lines and undersea volcanoes and sh- uh, stuff." He didn't quite glance over at Batman.

"Another true statement. So what do we do about it?"

"I think we need to convene the League," offered Wonder Woman. "This is something they all need to help decide."

Dr. Fate leaned back in his chair.  _It is as I had foreseen. I pray the rest of that vision was false._

####

…  _Apokolips, some days later …_

Dark and ominous fires burned in Darkseid's eyes. "So you failed."

"No, Dread Lord! Not failed! I missed nothing. No world in the Rift went unexamined. There is simply nothing there to find! There were fifteen relatively advances cultures, but only three had interstellar flight and they were just beginning to experiment with jump-ships. Not a single world showed even the slightest sign of the power generation abilities that would be needed."

"And what of your probes? Do they also show nothing?"

"Nothing, Dread Lord."

"Are they all still active?"

"… I … will double-check them, Dread Lord."

"Do so. Now."

Desaad spent a frantic few minutes getting his monitor crew to go through and catalogue all the information the various probes had sent back. When he finally had the full report, he hurried back to Darkseid.

"Well?"

"No reports of any increase in power output, Dread Lord."

"And?"

"Ah … and, uh, two of them have not sent any data in several days."

"And you didn't think that important enough to tell me?"

"Indeed, Dread Lord, those planets were …" He shifted through the readouts, pulling them to the top. "Yes. One was an uninhabited world in a very distant orbit around a blue giant. It looked as if animal life had never evolved there. The other was a very old world in close orbit around a yellow dwarf. The people of that planet had some unusual psychic abilities, but no advanced technology. Neither one was a candidate."

"Then why have your probes ceased to function? Their tech level should have precluded that."

"… I do not know, Dread Lord."

"That answer is unacceptable, Desaad."

"Dread Lord, I …" He got no further before beams of raving energy lanced from Darkseid's eyes, consuming him. The rock-like being then turned to one of his lackeys.

"Prepare my ship. I will find these creatures myself."

 


	21. Exploration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Once upon a time, there was a comic publishing house, an oligarchy that ruled a kingdom called DC. Many creative and talented bards worked there, and one time they conceived a group of Characters that they called the Teen Titans. This pleased the oligarchs, and they commanded that the bards go forth and publish graphic works: Stories and Plots and Related Arcs wherein these Titans would figure prominently. And the common folk of the countryside did rejoice, for they had discretionary income with which to purchase these publications, and they enjoyed the fruits of the bards' labors. And the DC oligarchs made it known throughout the land that the Titans belonged to them, and may not be used by any other entity, private or public, for the acquisition of filthy lucre, which was a right they reserved. And so it is that the author of this story disavows all monetary or copyright interest in the characters that he has "borrowed", and wishes only to be left in peace to spin his yarn, that he may live happily ever after. Please. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 21_

…  _in the Rift …_

Given the huge size and low gravity of K'Naa's world, the breathable atmosphere extended a good bit farther up than it does on Earth. Rachel had no trouble at all, even at an altitude of fifteen kilometers, and reveled in the experience as she spun and soared and looped, here at the edge of darkness.

K'Naa had no objections, so the girls had gone to explore that dusky region a few sleeps ago. Jinx found it "interesting" in the same way she might find a quick field trip through a history museum "interesting" … as long as it was a really quick trip. The planetary intelligence did not extend her presence into the night side of this world; therefore nothing lived there. Dead and dark just didn't do it for Jinx, and she decided very soon to let Rachel have her fun by herself. She had several new things she wanted to try that didn't have anything to do with lovemaking or how the other girl's soul-self might be merged with her own powers, and was quite content to work on those while Rachel played.

And play the dark girl did. One of the things K'Naa had taught them was how to use their powers in lieu of clothing, and so Rachel was wrapped in a warm, fuzzy layer of soul-self. She hardly felt the sub-zero bite of the high-altitude winds that constantly blew here. Though she wouldn't have dreamt of complaining, Rachel's essential nature had a natural affinity for darkness, and the constant, unending light tended to wear on her a little. Here, with half of a giant world's-worth of darkness, she felt a marvelous sense of peace, and offered K'Naa a silent 'Thank you' for the experience.

After a time, though, she began to feel hungry, both for food and for her lover's companionship, and so she oriented herself, brought up an image of the crystal cavern, and teleported over there. Hovering in the air above the monstrous geode, she cast about for Jinx, immediately feeling her off to what they had come to understand was 'north'. She flew that way, spotted the girl, and then stopped, her mouth hanging open.

Jinx had felt her approach and was waiting with a big smile. Waving a languid hand, she called, "Come on in, the water's fine!"

Rachel flew down slowly, her soul-self clothing sloughing away like autumn leaves, and landed at the edge of the pond where Jinx floated. "Where did this come from?"

Jinx giggled and tapped her head. "You know, we've  _been_  staying clean with magic, and that's all well and good, but I missed an actual bath. So I asked K'Naa if it'd be okay to fab one up, and she didn't mind, so here it is."

"… You  _ **made**_  a pond?"

"Well … really it's just a big bathtub. The water's warm, and that tree over there," she pointed at a small specimen growing at the edge of the water, "has leaves that make a kinda-sorta soap if you rub 'em hard. K'Naa did that. She knew how already."

Rachel floated over to the tree in question, her eyes lighting up when she got close. She buried her nose in the aromatic leaves and turned to Jinx with a wondering grin. "You're kidding!  _Lavender?"_

"Yeah." Her smile turned shy. "See, 'cause I know you like lavender, so …"

She didn't get a chance to say anything else, her mouth being too occupied with Rachel's to bother.

They spent half an hour lounging and playing before Jinx opined that she was beginning to resemble a giant raisin. Floating up out of the water, the two girls held a pose as each used her magic to dry off. Rachel surrounded herself with a dark mist for a few seconds, and the liquid on her body whiffed into vapor and vanished. On Jinx, a crackling snake of pink energy zipped around her, lapping up the moisture, and ending up in her hair, which seemed almost to explode with static before sighing back down over her shoulders, perfectly dry.

Rachel caught that and turned, looking closely at her lover. "Your hair is longer."

"Yep."

"That's … whoa. That looks  _ **good**_."

Jinx giggled self-consciously. "You like it?"

Rachel floated around behind her and ran her fingers through the luxuriant, rose-colored mass. It fell in soft waves almost to the middle of Jinx's back. She gathered two fistfuls of it and rubbed it against her face, whispering, "By Azar!"

"I'll take that as a yes."

Rachel zipped around to face her, put her arms over Jinx's shoulders, twining her fingers behind the other girl's neck, her deep purple eyes practically smoking. "This settles it. You are now officially the sexiest being in the known universe."

"And here I thought  _you_  had a clinch on the title."

"Nope. No one can compare with the Cotton Candy Bombshell." She pulled in close and gave Jinx a kiss that robbed her of breath. They had floated back to the ground by the time she was finished, and Rachel had to hold her lover up against the threat of wobbly knees. "Well. Now that we're both clean, howsabout we get a little sticky?"

####

…  _some sleeps later …_

Rachel stepped into the clearing and looked around. She could feel that Jinx was here, but the metahuman was doing a good job of making herself scarce. "Jinx? Hello? I'm here. What did you want to show me?"

"Two things."

" _ **Aiihh!"**_   Rachel jumped sideways, staring at the girl that had seemingly appeared from thin air. "Damn it, Jinx!"

"Woooo, sorry! I just wanted to show you a couple of tricks."

"And I'm guessing  _that_  was the first?"

"Yep."

"So … you can go invisible now?"

"Nope. You just didn't notice me."

"… What do you mean?"

"I fixed it so that you wouldn't notice me. You actually  _did_  see me, but I didn't register on your conscious mind. I was 'furniture'. It's like when you go through a room you've been in a million times where the furniture never moves, y'know? You see 'em, but you don't pay attention to 'em."

"… Okay. Sounds a little weird, but you obviously made it work. You'll have to show me that one."

"Deal. It's a piece o' cake, really."

"What's the other trick?"

Jinx scanned the ground briefly, bent, and came up with a rock, which she handed to Rachel. "Here. Hold that."

"Okay."

Trotting away a few steps, Jinx turned and stood with one hand at the small of her back. The other she pointed at Rachel. "Okay, when I say 'Now' I want you to pay attention."

"I'm already paying attention."

"Are you?" That Cheshire-cat grin manifested. "You sure about that?"

"I haven't been looking at anything else!"

"But are you paying attention to your rock?"

Rachel glanced at the rock in her hand and shrugged. "It's a rock. So what?"

"But it isn't. Look closer."

Frowning, the empath held her rock up to her face, whereupon it promptly disintegrated, leaving her with a clenched fist of nothing. "What the devil?"

"Here's the rock." Jinx held up the stone in question. "You were holding an illusion. I swapped 'em."

"So … you handed me an  _illusion?"_

"No, no, I handed you  _this_  rock. But then I was able to swap 'em out."

"… How the hell …"

"Oh, it's not hard. Here, let me show you …"

####

…  _yet more time passes …_

Once again in the lotus position, Rachel floated, serene, several meters above Jinx. "Try again."

"What's the point? I'll  _never_  get this stupid …"

"Yes, you will. It's just a matter of application. You have every bit as much control of your hex energy as I do of my soul-self."

"But you've been practicing longer!"

"And we have  _plenty_  of  _time_. You don't need to rush this. Now, squirm yourself around into something like a comfortable spot,  _reeelaaaaaax_  your mind, and we'll try it again."

Huffily, Jinx stretched herself out and then found a good seat on the pseudo-moss.

"Ground and center."

"Yes, Mother."

"None o' yo' sass, now, young-un, or ah'll tan yo' hide fer ya."

That sparked a merry light in the pink eyes. "A thousand pardons, O Revered One. Your humble servant lives but to gather the drops of wisdom that fall from your lips."

"Cut the shit, Jinx."

"That's more like it." She paid attention to her breathing then, and in a couple of minutes got herself into a calm and centered frame of mind.

Rachel nodded approval. "Much better. Now, intensify the ley lines. Slowly this time."

Jinx let the glowing web come lightly to rest in her mind.

"Excellent. That's a much more complete picture than you had before. Just let it sit there for a bit, and look at it. Follow the web around until you're comfortable with how it's formed. Remember that you're going to be working with what the web  _offers_ , not forcing it to be something it isn't."

"… Okay." And she spent a considerable amount of time doing just that.

When Rachel was satisfied that Jinx had a good bond with the web of ley lines, she said, "Now, slowly – and I do mean slowly – begin feeding little drips of hex energy into the web, and watch where it goes."

There were a few drops of sweat on Jinx's face, but she didn't notice them.

"That's good! Hold it there if you can."

"Yeah. No … problem."

"Relax. You're working with it, not against it, remember?"

"So this is … control-by-accident?"

"Hardly. There is nothing accidental about it. But the control is achieved by proxy, not by direct action. You want to lead the web, coax the web, show it where it wants to go, but make sure that  _it_  wants what  _you_  want."

"… seems like … a hella lotta trouble … to go through … just for a warning system …"

"You'll be happy you have it when you finally master it. And it isn't just a warning system. It's the basis for a whole new range of abilities."

"If you say so."

"Relax."

"I am relaxed!"

"Your breathing says otherwise. Slow and steady. In … out. Pause. In … out."

Some time later, Jinx had the web thoroughly invested with hex energy. To Rachel it might as well have been a fireworks display. "That looks wonderful, Jinx! How are you holding up?"

"Not too bad. Sneaking up on it in stages helped a lot." She examined her handiwork. "How big can this thing  _get?_  It already covers a few square klicks."

"K'Naa seems to think you ought to be able to cover the surface of the planet."

That almost broke her concentration. "Isn't that, like, a billion square klicks or some such bullshit?"

"It's a lot, yes, but she says that once you get used to handling it, size doesn't matter."

Jinx snorted a laugh. "Yeah, how many times have I heard  _that_  line! I'll believe it when I see it."

"Okay, you see where it goes into the ground, here and here and here?"

"Uh-huh."

"See if you can get it to energize the earth around those points. If you can, you ought to be able to get the earth to do what you want it to."

"… Energize the earth … how?"

"Can you feel the earth? Taste it through the ley lines? Crumble it in your fingers?"

Jinx concentrated for several long breaths; then her eyes flew open. "Oh! Wow! This is just like that other time!"

A broad smile broke out on Rachel's face. "Indeed. You  _can_  feel it."

"That's so cool!"

"Now, don't get carried away. If you try too much at once, the whole system will come apart. You  _don't_  want to be on the receiving end of  _that_  backlash, I  _promise!"_

"So what do I do, then?"

"Use one line. See if you can get the line to make the earth move."

"So what you're sayin' is you want me to give it an orgasm?"

Rachel answered her with an elaborate, exaggerated, heartfelt sigh.

"Sorry, Rae, just messin' with ya."

"Ley lines. Earth. Please?"

"Yes'm." She chose one of the lines and followed it into the ground.

####

…  _and still more time passes …_

The girls were once again in K'Naa's pocket universe. The three sat on one of the altar-things, facing in. Jinx and Rachel, having just heard K'Naa's pronouncement, were staring at each other in shock. They looked back at the entity and Jinx said, "You can _ **not**_  be serious."

"Yes, Dear Ones, I am. I have come as far as I can by working from this end. To finish the journey, you will have to free my spirit."

"But … hell's bells, K'Naa,  _ **we**_  don't know what we're doing!"

"I will show you. Yes, this may take some time, but it will be necessary if you are to learn how to wield the warp matrix. I have realigned your spirits to conform to mine as much as I can without harm. From this point, the change will have to come from  _ **me**_." She held up a hand to forestall their objections. "Please do not worry. I do not believe the changes will be difficult to achieve, but there are a few significant points where our essential natures have little in the way of commonality." Giving them a radiant smile, she added, "That is only to be expected, when you consider how different our histories are, our physical forms, our frames of reference. But I have been doing this off and on for a quarter-million of your years. Please do not think that you are the first visitors to effect such changes in me."

"Really? How did that work?"

"Ah, Dear Ones, let me tell you of Ogun. His people were a race of creatures who looked a bit like the centaurs from your mythology, except their skin was scaled like reptiles. They died out a quarter-million years ago, but if it had not been for the volatile geology of his home planet, they might be directing the affairs of the galaxy today. It was a true pity."

"What, did his planet blow up?"

"Nothing quite that dramatic, but no less final. His planet had captured a moon, much like yours on Earth, that produced significant tides. The moon suffered an asteroid collision that caused it to take on a highly-elliptical orbit, which increased the severity of the tides, to the point that not just the seas, but also the land was affected. Great volcanoes arose, earthquakes became daily occurrences. Poisonous gases from the planet core leaked into the atmosphere, and made life impossible on the surface. They had space flight, but no FTL. They tried to colonize one of the other planets – its moon, actually – but that did not work out. I found him on that moon, one of the last survivors of his race, and pulled him here."

Rachel's eyes shimmered. "You have seen  _so much_  sadness!"

"I have. Yet after millions of years of witnessing such tragedies, I still find the curse of apathy to be the greatest tragedy of all. Ogun's people  _cared!_  They had created a planetary monoculture that maximized personal happiness and personal responsibility. They were energized, vital, and aware of themselves. They had vision and drive, and strove to accomplish what they could, given what they had. A truly amazing race."

"Did he like it here?"

"He did. He worked with me for many years on some of the finer points of their philosophy, and I count him as one of my closest friends. His people were very long-lived; four or five hundred of your years would not be an uncommon lifespan. So he had more time with me than most. He was here to witness the next two transfers, and was an invaluable aid in incorporating those beings. The next one was Aramahala, a member of a sexless, amphibious race. They had a situation that was quite the opposite of Ogun's, in that their planet was the only one orbiting their star, they had no moon, no tides, and except for several chains of low islands, their home was covered in shallow seas."

"Sounds like a vacation paradise."

"They were happy with it. Their cosmology was simpler than most, since they never had unusual weather and their geology was basically fixed. Nothing bad ever happened, so their concept of an afterlife was generally more of the same. But their star was old, and dying. They didn't have the resources to develop technology advanced enough to produce FTL space travel, and knew that they had, at most, another twenty thousand years before their sun blew up. They were a very resigned and philosophical people. Aramahala and Ogun got on quite well."

"So are you saying that you … altered yourself for them?"

"Ah. But then there was Mbweedi. Her race evolved on a world where plant life more than held its own against animals. She was a mobile plant. She would need to find a spot in the sun every few hours so that she could put out roots to take up water and minerals, but otherwise she didn't look tremendously different from humans … at least from a distance. Of course the details were nothing alike. Her limbs didn't have joints, and she had no internal skeleton, but she communicated through sound, as you do, and moved in a bipedal fashion."

"I think I might have seen her in your vault. Tall, dark green, and real thin, with big feet?"

"I believe you did. In any case, these three beings became fast friends, and they helped me in many ways to refine my thoughts on what I wanted to share with the galaxy. It was with them that I first undertook to reshape my spirit on purpose."

Rachel cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'on purpose'?"

"We all change, all the time, if we are alive and aware. It cannot be helped. But these changes tend to be gradual, the result of a life of experience and self-examination. What we have been doing with your spirits is tremendously more accelerated than that. I learned to do it from working with Aramahala and Ogun and Mbweedi."

"That's wild."

"The results pleased me well. I would repeat the process now."

"Sure!" said Jinx brightly. "That sounds great! What do we have to do?"

"You, dear Jinx, will wield the dagger while dear Rachel catches my spirit." And she spent quite a bit of time explaining just exactly what Rachel was to do with it once she'd caught it. It was not a tremendously complex process, but rather delicate.

"Okay," Rachel offered, at length, "I think I've got it. That's not what I was expecting at all, but it makes sense in retrospect." She cocked her head, looking at K'Naa in wonder. "And that's what you've been doing with us?"

"Absolutely. And you have responded so beautifully! But there is yet growth to achieve before we can meld our spirits sufficiently to allow you to wield the warp field. This growth must be mine."

"I'm cool with that," answered Jinx. "You wanna go for it now?"

"I  _would_  like to complete the first stage before your next sleep, if you don't mind."

The girls chorused their assent. Rachel asked, "Do you need to do anything to prepare yourself?"

"Ah … yes. Actually, we need to make love."

Jinx and Rachel stared at her, round-eyed. "Serious? With us?"

"Well … yes. Dear Jinx made the overture the first time you did it here, but I could not participate because of what I needed to do on my side. That restriction does not apply here, and since my spirit is the one being modified, some of my love energy needs to be included in the equations."

The girls grinned at each other. Jinx squealed, "Sweeeet!" Rachel asked, "Did you do that before, with Ogun and … uh, those other two?"

"With them it was … different. Their races had many other things to recommend them, but they did not express their love physically in the way that humans do. That time – and every other time, since you ask – the communing was more in the way of profoundly deep meditation."

"Okay. But you've been experiencing what  _we_  do when we make love, right? I mean, we're right here in your mind!"

"Very true. But as you also know, there are certain barriers in place  _between_  our minds, there for your safety and mental well-being. While I have witnessed your love-making, and have felt some of the joy you feel during the act, I realize also that I have not been a party to very much of the physical sensation." She smiled shyly. "I am actually looking forward to a more … full understanding of it. In crafting this seeming for myself, I have included all that I know of human female physiology. And not to present a boastful front, but I believe I can say that I have as profound a knowledge of your physical makeup as any entity ever has. So I am sure I got it right, from that standpoint." She spread her hands, her smile growing. "I simply need to know what to do with it."

Jinx leaned back and laughed. "Awesome! Another virgin to break in! And this time I'll have help!"

Rachel agreed. "This should be loads of fun." She scooted over beside K'Naa and said, "Okay, you just lie here and let us drive for a while, okay?"

The dark woman lay back. "Where do I need to be?"

Purple eyes met pink ones over K'Naa's chest. By tacit agreement, they began a light massage. Jinx answered her, "You're fine where you are for now. But put your arms up … yeah, behind your head. That's good."

They 'practiced their art' on her for a while, eliciting sighs of pleasure. Rachel leaned down and purred in her ear, "You know, you make a very beautiful woman."

"Thank you. I studied the genotype extensively before … before …" She swallowed and caught her breath. "… oh … my. How are you … doing that?"

Rachel's delicate hands ran lightly and smoothly past K'Naa's breasts, just brushing the outer limits of her areolas; the dark woman's nipples stiffened in response. At the same time, Jinx was doing a slow rub on her thighs, working between knee and hip joint, and occasionally up onto her belly. She was getting closer to the dark delta of fine pubic hair each time, making K'Naa squirm.

"Is this … what you feel …  _every time?"_

"Mmhmm. Among other things." Then Rachel's tongue and teeth made contact just in front of her ear and nibbled their way along her jawline and onto her throat, bringing several small, random moans in response.

Jinx noted with satisfaction that K'Naa was getting very wet, and her legs had parted of their own accord. She massaged all  _around_  the pudenda, coming agonizingly close, so much so that the dark woman began to arch her back and push to gain better contact. But Jinx wasn't allowing that just yet, continuing her ministrations to belly and mound and inner thigh while making only the slightest of grazing touches to the pubic hair, and K'Naa began giving out small squeaking sounds.

Then Rachel's tongue found one of the almost-painfully-stiff nipples, and she bit lightly, and K'Naa slid right over the edge into her very first climax, bucking up hard against Jinx's hand. The pink-eyed girl was then more than willing to help things along, and slid two fingers inside, brushing the pulsing clit with a knuckle, and kicking the orgasm into high gear.

K'Naa shuddered and gasped for nearly half a minute before collapsing into what she was sure was nothing more than a gooey, protoplasmic pile. She lay there, panting, while the two girls grinned at each other, finally managing to say, "I had … no … idea … how … unbelievably … intense …" Then she curled up into a fetal position and shuddered again. "… and you do that …  _every time_  … don't you?"

"We sure do," Rachel concurred. "And one  _really_  nice thing about the female anatomy is that your recovery time after a climax can be very, very short." She reached down and began kneading K'Naa's ass, and their host's eyes flew open in pleasant shock. "See what I mean?"

"Oh … that feels … so …"

She was lying on her left side. Jinx picked up her right leg and draped it over her shoulder, then opened the dark vulva and ran the tip of her tongue up the inside of the labia. Meanwhile, Rachel had captured K'Naa's mouth with hers and was sucking on the woman's lower lip. Jinx lapped eagerly at the depths of the dark womanhood; Rachel plunged her tongue into K'Naa's mouth; and she exploded again, this time wetting Jinx's face with her enthusiastic climax while she groaned loudly into Rachel's mouth.

A shaking arm came down and gripped the pink head. Her voice catching and tripping over itself, K'Naa begged, "… wait … please wait … just … I need … wait …" The two girls sat back, grinning, and gave her some space while she recovered. Finally, she opened her eyes and turned that shining gaze back at them, glancing back and forth between them. She repositioned herself, then had to pause as a tiny after-shock hit her, but eventually she got into a semi-reclined state. She shook her head in wonder. "Twenty million years."

"Sorry?"

"I have wasted twenty million of your years." Then she shivered again and gave them a shrug. "Or perhaps not. But …" she took a minute to think about it. "The first time I happened across a race that was as capable of physical love as you are was … about seven hundred thousand years ago. He lived with me for a long time. I knew about their sexual abilities – his race was hermaphroditic, and mutual penetration was the norm – and while I thought at the time that it might be pleasant to partake, I never really knew, never tried to …" She lay back, put a forearm across her face and sighed. "Now I must wonder what _ **else**_  I have missed."

"I can't answer that one for you, K'Naa. All I can say is that we can do that some more, whenever you want."

The dark head shook gently with laughter. "That is certainly true enough. I have noticed that the two of you seem to have large reserves of stamina." She inspected the altar. "It is not glowing yet. That means we are not finished."

Jinx pumped a fist in the air. "Hot damn! More sex!"

"Yes, let us have more sex. Let us have a  _ **lot**_  more sex."

 


	22. Miscalculation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Nietzsche said that if we find out what we love to do, we should never have to work another day in our lives. That's as may be, but I don't think he ever ran afoul of DC Comics, or copyright law, or cease-and-desist orders. Because, believe me, I LOVE writing fanfics, and I particularly love writing this one. But, since I don't OWN The Teen Titans, I will not make any MONEY off them, no matter how many of these I churn out. I dunno. Maybe he was talking about design engineering … -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 22_

…  _Atlanta, Georgia …_

"Y'know what I heard, Rob?"

Robin cut a glance over at the cyborg, but didn't say anything.

"I heard somebody say once that Atlanta is like New York except with pecan trees."

"I think," replied the shorter teen under his breath, "there might be one or two more differences."

Terra offered, "The population density in Queens is three times the average for Atlanta."

The two guys' heads swiveled around and locked on her. Robin said, "How in the world did you …"

"Final Jeopardy, night before last."

Cyborg nodded to himself as he studied the young girl.  _The anti-depressants certainly seem to be doing their job._  Ever since he had prevented her from killing herself just over a month gone, he'd taken a very keen view of her mental health. At first she had no perceptible interest in any sort of treatment, but after a week of the SSRI/SNRI combination, she'd perked right up. Once her serotonin and norepinephrine levels were corrected, she was more vibrant and involved with the team (and life in general) than she'd ever been before. Victor suspected that many of her problems all along could be pegged to that. If she'd gotten a decent mental health diagnosis before she ever met Slade …  _Oh, stop it._   _Don't beat yourself up, Vic, you had no way of knowing how any of that was gonna play out. Like the man said, you can never know what might have been._

Robin's T-com buzzed with an unusual tone. He unlimbered it and responded, "Barnes?"

"When is he showing up?"

"Our best estimates put him in the area now. But you won't see him until he wants to be seen."

"You'd better be right about this. I've got nineteen agents that …"

"I have a keen appreciation for your personnel issues, Special Agent. But  _ **you**_  asked  _ **us**_  for help on this one. If you didn't need our expertise, why did you …"

"Don't take that tone with  _ **me**_ , kid! Just because you trained with …"

"I'm not 'taking a tone' with you, I'm explaining the facts, which you seem to have conveniently …"

"Listen, you little jerk, you're out of your jurisdiction already, so don't …"

"I would remind you that we have special orders from the Deputy Director for …"

Cyborg put a stop to the Dueling Interruptions with a hand on Robin's arm. The Titans' leader glanced over at him. A superalloy finger pointed down at the plaza below.

Robin said –  _very_  quietly – "He's here. Point … seven-one by four-two." Then he flipped the T-com off.

"Where?" Terra whispered. "I don't see him."

Cyborg nodded grimly. "At the corner of that alley there … next to the GameStop."

She stiffened. "That dog?"

"Yeah. Don't see too many green dogs."

They watched as the small pseudo-canine sniffed around the alley. Robin was correct in his stance with Special Agent Barnes: the FBI  _had_  contacted them for help with the rash of killings of major underworld figures. Their interest hit overdrive after the deaths of no fewer than three of their prime inside informants in less than two weeks. The fact that one of their agents had tried to save the last one, and been hospitalized with a concussion for his trouble, got them particularly exercised. Robin considered the man lucky, given Gar's ever-mounting penchant for slaughter.

He flicked his T-com open. "Star?"

"I am here, Robin."

"Point seven-one by four-two. Initiate Pattern One and stand by."

"Copy. I will do the by-standing."

Despite the soon-to-be-harrowing nature of their mission, Robin's mouth had to work to suppress the smile that clamored for exposure. "Copy. Out." Turning again to Terra, he said, "You're on. And please, please,  _please_  be careful. This is not the Garfield Logan that used to sit in your lap as a kitten."

Her eyes were glued to the canine form in the alley below. "I know. That's what the suit's for." Rising briefly into the air, she then dropped over the side of the building, floating gently down to the sidewalk. Her comment about a 'suit' referenced the articulated Aloxyn armor she wore. Nearly three centimeters thick, it  _should_  be proof against anything he could throw at her. But it wasn't completely air-tight. It couldn't be, since she needed to breathe, and for this mission needed to be able to talk to him. The forensics experts determined that he'd killed at least one victim by entering the man's nose as a small insect, crawling up into the sinuses, and then transforming into something much larger. Terra had begged for the chance to talk to him, hoping that the affection he used to feel for her might still give her an edge. She didn't want him killed, and the even score of Federal Agents currently moving in were prepared to do just that if the Titans' ploy failed.

Privately, Robin was putting better-than-even money on the shape-shifter if it came down to a physical fight.

As soon as Garfield Logan heard the slight  _tik_  of Terra's foot hitting the concrete, he spun and assumed the shape of something out of legend. Terra looked up into a nearly-human face that loomed over her by almost a meter. The creature was about five meters long, its body resembling a large feline. But it was armored with steely scales; and it had wings, great bat-like things with wicked hooks along their front edges; and a long, long, flexible tail that ended in a needle-sharp stinger at least fifty centimeters from base to tip. A  _basso profundo_  growl erupted from the huge throat and the business end of the stinger hovered just in front of Terra's chest.

She didn't like the looks of that tip  _at all_. Swallowing her panic, she raised one hand timidly. "H-Hi, Gar."

In a voice like a truckload of crushed pumice, he answered, "Why are you here?"

"I want to help you." She hoped the earnest truth in her eyes would be enough to keep him from killing her. "You've gotten … a little sidetracked. There are a lot of people who are, um, upset by some of the things you've done, uh, recently."

"Help? You want to help?" The tail lashed back and forth. Its tip clicked across her chest, leaving a scratch in the bullet-proof material. Immediately it began giving off a light trail of smoke. "Staying out of my way is the best help you can be. I have no beef with you, Terra. I'm working alone now." He turned, giving her a profile. "You should leave. There's a lot of work to be done, and I don't think you have the stomach for it."

"What sort of work, Gar? What are you trying to accomplish?"

One great, black eye found her. One word followed: "Cleansing."

"But why you, Gar? Why does it have to be you?"

"No one else will do it. No one understands. There's filth on the underside of this land, filth and disease and cancer, and it's spreading. It's killed parts of some cities, and will kill more soon. Some people know this, but either don't care or are too tied up by red tape and so-called morals to do anything decisive." He stepped toward her. "Do you understand?"

"I know there are bad people …"

"Ha. If only they were simply 'bad'. No, these creatures are so far past 'bad' it can't be imagined."

"Then they need to be caught! Arrested and punished, locked up so …"

"I see you don't understand." He crouched, crossing his front paws and putting his face level with hers. "When a body gets an infection, it  _fights_  the infection. It fights with everything it has, and it doesn't stop until the infection is fucking  _gone_. Not cowed, not arrested, not jailed. Gone. Every last germ has to die. If it doesn't, it will just come back, and the relapse will be worse than the first go-round." He lowered his great head, frowning at her. "These scumballs I'm after are worse than germs. If they were only taking up somebody else's space and using up somebody else's oxygen, I wouldn't care. I'd leave them be. But they aren't. They are spreading misery and pain and poverty and murder, and they  _will_  be stopped. Tonight." He rose again. "You should go now."

"I … I can't. Gar, I can't."

"And why not? Were you forced to come here? To talk to me?"

"No. I wanted to … to give you a chance … to …"

"To what? Surrender to the FBI types who think they're sneaking up on me?"

She let go a small sigh. "I told them you'd know." Reaching a hand out and touching the great face, she added, "You do realize they won't give up, right? They can't. They're honor-bound, too! You've  _killed_  people, Gar, a  _lot_  of people!"

"Hah! I don't think so. What I've done is pest control. And I'm not finished." He tensed, and cocked an eye slightly upward. "But, since you bring it up …" The tail whipped out and wrapped around her twice, pulling her up next to him. "… you'll have to come with me for now. I don't think Star will fire her little toy at me while you're …"

She shot upward with everything she could muster. That just about pulled his tail off, but he managed to hang on, screaming in pain and rage while they gained altitude.

Robin yelled, "Shoot, Star, for God's sake, shoot!"

The Tamaranian, who had been moving stealthily in the changeling's direction, floated just above the alley, cradling an odd-looking weapon that vaguely resembled a carbon-fiber blunderbuss. She  _whiffed_  out of the way when Terra zoomed past, and then, following closely, quickly aimed at the dangling manticore and pressed the activation stud. A jet of deep-violet flame erupted from the opening, impacting squarely on Garfield Logan's shoulder.

He went into a frenzied convulsion, jerking Terra six ways in half that many seconds, but she finally did slip from his grasp. He fell then, the great wings seemingly unable to slow his descent. It was about thirty meters to the ground, and the street shook when he hit.

Special Agent Barnes and ten of his men instantly converged on the monster.

Robin was already holding his communicator. "Terra, you okay?"

"… Yeah. I guess." She wafted slowly down toward the still-twitching shape-shifter.

The weapon Starfire used, the weapon they'd been supplied by the government, was designed to short-circuit Gar's 'shifter'. He'd be stuck in whatever form he had when it hit him, although the scientists weren't certain how long that would last. That's why Barnes had several canisters of knock-out juice. One of them approached the trembling being, unlimbering a large hypodermic needle and asking, "Where's a good place to stick this?"

Terra had a better angle and saw the murderous gleam in the black eye. She yelled, "Look out!" and darted at the man, just in time to push him out of the way of the stinger …

… and take it herself.

####

…  _in the pocket universe …_

Jinx raised the dagger high and slammed it into K'Naa's chest. She was used to the brilliant flash of light that always accompanied the initiation of spiritual realignment, and so wasn't surprised when it happened. But what  _did_  surprise her was when she and Rachel were both sucked into the actinic vortex with her.

_There was nothing._

_They didn't float. They didn't have enough awareness of their surroundings to even entertain the concept of 'floating'._

_Rachel? Can you hear me? What happened?_

**I AM HERE**

_K'Naa? Where are we? What happened?_

**WE HAVE DONE IT.**

**MY SPIRIT IS COMPLETE.**

_Jinx? Are you here, too?_

_I think so. I can't feel anything or see or …_

**MY DEAR ONES!**

**REJOICE!**

**WE ARE ONE!**

In a rush of vertigo that left both girls' minds nearly blank, they were suddenly floating in the great crystal.

And K'Naa was there. She smiled at them. Gazing down at herself, she smiled wider. "It worked. I am here."

"Hey!" squealed Jinx, "we're back in real-time!"

"Yes, Dear One, we are. And now your spirits are aligned with mine. You can talk to me directly, and I with you."

"So … are you … real?"

"As real as you, Dear Jinx."

Rachel was confused. "Wait … how are you a planet and a … human … at the same …" That was when the girls noticed K'Naa's eyes. It was the first time they'd ever been able to look directly at them and not have the glow get in the way. "By Azar! Your eyes!"

"What of them, Dear Rachel?"

"So … beautiful …"

They glittered and sparked, now the green of spring leaves, now the deep burgundy of wine, now obsidian-black, now the ice-blue of a polar dawn, ever changing, never still.

"My eyes reflect my joy, and the communion with your spirits." She held her arms out and the girls came to her. "This body you see is an aspect. It is an avatar of who I am, and something I have been longing to do for longer than you can imagine. And you two, my Dear Ones,  _ **you**_  have given me this gift."

They cuddled each other, hanging there in the bright world of the crystal, laughing together, crying together, for many a long moment. Then K'Naa said, "And now you may learn to wield the warp field."

Jinx rubbed at her eyes and giggled. "Okay. If you want. But I, for one, don't really want to leave."

"Leaving or staying, coming or going, Dear One, will be in your power. You will go where you will. Distance will become meaningless for you."

They looked at her solemnly. Rachel asked, "But we  _do_  need to learn it, right? So that others can come here, and learn, and grow?"

"Yes, Dear Rachel. That is my dream. And you two are the dream-in-waking!" She hugged them again. "Let us begin."

####

…  _the Watchtower …_

Wonder Woman slammed the medical report onto the table. "Not acceptable!"

"She's stable, Diana," retorted Batman. "That's all we can do for now."

"She's in a  _coma_. I don't call that 'stable'."

One of the neurologists on Terra's case, a Dr. Brown, looked up, offering timidly, "She isn't dead, ma'am. I'd call  _that_  nine kinds of miracle all by itself. She must have an amazing constitution. That witch's brew of toxins she got stabbed with …"

"Yes! Yes, I know." Holding her hand against her forehead, the Amazon mulled the situation over for a moment. The manticore was arguably the worst possible monster from ancient times, and how Garfield Logan had managed to adopt the form was something she'd give a lot to know. Insanely strong and nearly immune to damage, if it  _does_  happen to take any wounds, it regenerates in next to no time. The beast shrugs off magical attacks like squirts from a water pistol, and carries on its stinger the most lethal poison that the lunatic mages who first created the thing could devise. Even some of the toxins  _themselves_  were magical in nature, given that demonic energy was used to give the creatures life in the first place. Diana knew that the healing arts of the Amazons would be useless against this. She looked up at Batman. "What we need is a demon who'd be willing to pull the poison out magically. But finding one in the first place is tricky, and then striking a deal with it …"

"Bad idea, Diana. The first rule of dealing with the devil …"

"… is 'Don't'. I know. But we are  _running_  out of  _options_."

Batman looked over at Dr. Fate, who stood in front of Terra's tank, alongside Cyborg and Starfire, who hadn't left her side since the incident. Robin was in and out, being occupied with the disposition of Garfield Logan and the Federal red-tape nightmares that came with it. Victor had synched his onboard systems with the medical computer so he could monitor her condition very closely. Starfire, one hand against the glass, had tear-tracks marring her face.

Terra was suspended in a healing gel, supplied with oxygen through tubes. Other lines ran here and there, pumping in what they thought would help and taking away wastes. The golden-helmed hero studied her, noting that the skin above where they'd amputated her hand was still an angry red. He said, "I believe you should have taken the whole arm."

"It wouldn't have made any difference." Batman walked over to him. "The poison had enough time to get into her blood before we could do anything."

"And you have  _changed_  her blood. Twice."

"Like Wonder Woman said," put in Dr. Brown, "it's magic poison. We'll probably have to give her a complete transfusion again tomorrow. Fresh blood is all that's keeping her alive now, I'm afraid."

The Amazon glared at him, then turned away. "I've got to go visit someone. I'll be back tomorrow." And she strode off, purposefully.

"Dare I ask where she's going?" inquired the doctor.

Batman didn't answer right away. He walked over to the tank, taking up a position beside Dr. Fate. "Unless I miss my guess, she's going to try to find Chiron."

The neurologist blinked at him. "Who?"

Dr. Fate answered, "Centaur. Physician of the gods."

"Oh. Well." Dr. Brown had had very little truck with gods or demons (or religion of any kind, for that matter) prior to landing on this case, and was somewhat out of his depth. "Well, that's good, right?"

"Maybe," said Batman. "If I recall correctly, Chiron doesn't get along with the Amazons very well."

"Oh. So she'll have to be persuasive?"

"She'll have to keep him from killing her."

 


	23. Fallen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (WHEREAS the entertainment entity known as DC Comics, Inc. (hereafter referred to as 'DC') has created the Teen Titans, and
> 
> WHEREAS the Teen Titans are a well-established superhero team in the DC Universe, with all the rights and privileges thereunto pertaining, and
> 
> WHEREAS prior copyright law applies to these entities without exception or legal redress,
> 
> THEREFORE the Author of this story denies any and all claim to said characters, retaining only the rights to the plot and to any incidental characters not previously claimed by DC.
> 
> And he would deeply appreciate it if DC just pretended he didn't exist.
> 
> -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 23_

…  _the Rift …_

Jinx floated in the center of the great crystal. Beams and planes and bolts and waves of pink force danced around her and with her and through her.

_The Glory …_

_The Unparalleled Power …_

_The Incredible Sweetness of Total Release …_

Rachel, hovering in the lotus position just below her lover, maintained full synchronization of their psyches.  _Come on, Babe! Just a little more! You've almost got it!_  A hundred-hundred tendrils of black mist played tag with the frightful maze of hex energy, coaxing and leading and delicately arranging.

From the cavern's entrance, K'Naa watched, spellbound, as gradually they brought the matrix under control.  _Yes! I knew they could do it! The Melding is nearly done._

As more and more of Rachel's soul-self entwined with Jinx's hex force, a subtle change began to take place. Neither girl noticed it, since they weren't watching the flow with their eyes, but here and there along the web, the energies were joining, not simply as a cord is twisted, but more as when two rivers flow together. The pink and the black gave birth to something that might have been white, had it not been much too bright to look at. When perhaps a third of the matrix had transformed this way, K'Naa raised her arms; a column of turquoise power lanced up out of the ground, spilling into the matrix, imbuing it with the last bit of resonance it needed.

If someone had been flying by in a starship, and happened to be looking in the planet's direction, he would have had ringside seats to quite a show. The glittering matrix sprang through the atmosphere, building on itself, unfolding like an immense fan into the most mind-bending dream-catcher in the history of matter. A million kilometers across it grew; two million; five million; twelve million. The raving energies of K'Naa's primary were drawn in, focused, channeled down the glassy, blue-green column, changed, and stored, and still the matrix grew.

K'Naa wept in boundless joy.  _This_  is how it should be! Access to enough power to touch anyone in the galaxy! Very soon her core was full; she broke the column and sealed the source. The girls, sensing this, began reeling in the web. It was somehow easier this time. The web didn't fight them, didn't try to break free; it almost seemed as if a spring were relaxing to its resting state. When they had the unimaginable energies tied up and cinched down tight, they looked at each other and giggled in relief. Jinx offered, "Now that wasn't such a chore, was it?"

Rachel popped her bottom for her. " _You_  looked like you were having some fun."

"I dunno. 'Fun' is such a weak and worthless word to use. I felt … invincible."

Nodding in agreement, Rachel said, "Exactly. I've never felt like that before, not even when I was wielding Trigon's power against him." She turned to their host, who was rising to join them. "Thank you, K'Naa! That was amazing!"

"You, my Dear Ones, are the truly amazing element in this equation." She embraced them warmly. "You have done it. Now you know how. You will be able to generate the collection matrix wherever you are. Any nearby star can fuel the warp field." She drew back, but didn't let go. "Now you truly have no limits. Anywhere you can envision, you can go."

Jinx grew suddenly solemn. "… Does that mean we should … go … now?"

"I am saddened as well, dear Jinx. I will miss you while you are away. But I would ask you to return as soon as you may. You will need to contact the leaders of your world, and perhaps those of a few other worlds as well. This will take time, I know, but time I have in plenty." She gave them a small, secret smile.  _And you have more time than you know._

Rachel caught Jinx's eye, gave the slightest possible toss to her head. They both turned back to K'Naa. "We'd like another sleep here before we leave, if that's all right."

"Please, by all means!" She hugged them yet again. "I miss you already."

"Do you think we could … you know … make love again?"

K'Naa's smile grew refulgent. "Nothing would please me more."

####

…  _later …_

**[ [ Focus ] ]**

Rachel's mind was an arrow on the bow of K'Naa's psyche.

Jinx's power was the arm stretching that bow back and back and back.

They had spent quite some time debating just how to go about this. They wanted to end up back in or near Jump City. But at the distances in question here, an error of a millionth of an arc-second wouldn't even put them on the planet.

**[ [ Seek ] ]**

So they sought out a likely mind as a target. Rachel already had something of a mental link with Robin, courtesy of a previous adventure, and so he was the logical choice. Jinx wasn't too sure, though. Richard Grayson held no affection for the pink-haired sorceress; indeed, quite the opposite. And since the Melding would include her pattern, she thought he might resist just on principle.

**[ [ Know ] ]**

Abandoning that plan, they hunted for Terra. She considered Rachel ( _Raven_ , since that was how she was most comfortable thinking about the empath) to be her best friend, and had always thought Jinx was funny. Her antics had the geomancer actually helpless with laughter on one occasion, and since she was still quite young, her resistance to mental contact would be lower. But that avenue hadn't panned out. For some reason, they couldn't locate her psychic signature. That worried Rachel a bit. She couldn't think of a good reason (not one she wanted to contemplate, anyway) for the lack.

**[ [ Aim ] ]**

They settled on Victor Stone. They had both been teammates of his, and he liked both of them. He may actually still have been a little sweet on Jinx, truth be told. It took Rachel a great deal less time than she'd feared to locate him. Once that was established, all they had to do was keel the destination locus over about a kilometer to the Jump City Beach. They would arrive at night, when the Beach was closed, so as not to cause too much of a stir.

**[ [ Fire ] ]**

The warp's multiple-tesseract-form hung in the air about them, blurring the sharp edges of the crystal, as they drew the power up from K'Naa's core. With a last, fleeting farewell, the two girls released the bow …

_And they are gone._ K'Naa hovered in the crystal, casting her mind in their direction. Once initiated, the warp took essentially no time to form the conduit. They were traveling now, and in a very few moments would be planting their feet on the soil of their own world.  _Be well, my Dear Ones. And be careful._

####

…  _Jump City Beach …_

Officer David Torrington was the kind of cop you wanted to have around, the sort that reinforced one's faith in mankind. He wasn't a Jump City native, having moved here only five years past, but to him it felt like his hometown. He loved everything about it: the weather, the beach, the modern financial district, the quaint little boroughs dotting the city, the various avenues for art and culture. He even liked the fact that they had their very own super-hero team, which made him nearly unique in his unit. Most of the police had a tendency to  _resent_  the Titans. Oddly, that was especially true of many of the ones whose lives they had saved in the course of their super-heroing.

Naturally he  _didn't_  like the darker side of the city, the criminal element that made his job necessary. But since this was his duty – his  _calling_  – even that served to cement his affection for the place. Jump needed him; and he needed Jump.

So when he saw the flash of light off to his left, from the direction of the beach, and almost immediately heard a loud  _ **crrrack**_ , it was with a sense of righteous indignation that he turned his patrol car around and sped to the nearest entrance.  _Blasted kids! Probably drunk. Well, it_ _is_ _just one week until Halloween, so I_ _guess_ _some pre-partying is to be expected. But the beach is closed for a reason! That's all I need is some kid with three sheets to the wind going for a midnight swim and getting caught in the undertow. Man, are they ever gonna hear it from me!_

He zipped along the access road and through the 'official' entrance, bouncing down toward where he thought the blast had come from. But there were no kids in evidence. He stopped in a few places, shining his spotlight along the water's edge, but came up empty.  _Maybe they saw the patrol car and high-tailed it._  But he knew there weren't any good places to exit the beach apart from where he'd come in, and there hadn't been time for anyone to slip past him.  _Unless they're invisible. Wouldn't_ _ **that**_ _just put a twist in your shorts? Super-villains into minor vandalism._

He just  _knew_  the blast came from right around here. Pulling the car up next to the low fence, he got out and unlimbered his big Maglight, shining it all around the area. Then he stiffened. Ah-Hah! If that wasn't a crater – and a damned big one – he'd eat it. Stealthily he approached. Whoa. A very  ** _deep_** crater. He peeked over the edge, shone his light down …

In a quick, practiced motion, he had his radio in his hand. "Code Red! Code Red! EMTs to Jump City Beach, stat!"

####

…  _Craven Memorial Hospital …_

Abigail Forbes, RN, came back to the nurses' station and flopped down into her swivel chair, which immediately lived up to its name. Her motion stopped when her feet bumped into the little two-drawer filing cabinet she kept under the long desk. Leaning her head back until it touched the wall behind her, she vented a long sigh.

The floor orderly, one Carl Bennett, glanced over at her. "Some night, huh?"

She didn't open her eyes. "Fuck. Me. Hard."

"You should be careful what you ask for, Abby."

"Too late." She sat up, turning to face him. "Commotion like that, I DO NOT need. We got seven, count 'em,  _seven_  women in labor upstairs. The ER is slam full. Hell, we even have somebody in the kook-room goin' through detox. My feet are killing me. My husband doesn't remember what my face looks like any more." She threw her hands up. "And then we get a  _naked_ _super-villain?_  What the fucking  _fuck?"_

"Such language. What would your daughter say?"

"She'd say, 'You left out a  _fuck_ , Mommy,' that's what."

"Precocious little thing."

"Don't I know it." She shook her head. "Reports. Gotta get the reports done." The form in question was quickly pulled from the small filing cabinet.

"This is the twenty-first century. How come they don't have that on the hospital's intranet yet?"

"Because that would make  _waaay_  too much sense." She clicked open a pen and started writing.

"Where'd the cops take 'em, anyway?"

"Well, Jinx is headed for the metahuman prison northeast of the city. The other one's still upstairs. Seems to be in a light coma, last I heard, but they don't know why. Tox screen was negative."

"Woulda been nice if one of 'em had been conscious."

"Hah! Not Jinx. My brother works at the downtown Continental Bank branch. He was there when she showed up once to rob it." Pursing her lips, she said, "That girl is sixteen colors of disaster. They don't call her a bad-luck charm for nothing."

"Yeah, well, okay. I have heard that." He meandered over to the desk and leaned on it. "What ya think they'll do with her?"

"If they've got any sense they'll put her in cold sleep and leave her there."

####

…  _Probst Federal Prison, High-Security Wing, Special Unit …_

If you have ever lived in certain parts of the southern United States, you might have run across a sporty little import called the fire ant. If not, allow me to explain. Fire ants originated, so they say, in South America, where they were a pest. They have gradually moved north, into territory where natural enemies are in short supply, and have become a GIGANTORMOUS pest. They take over fields, farms, and sometimes entire counties, where their tall, conical mounds crop up every few feet. They endanger livestock, and occasionally humans, with their fiendishly effective attack strategies.

You see, fire ants sting. That's no surprise; most ants sting to one degree or another. The Australian bulldog ant has a sting so powerful that a dozen of them can kill a man. But you rarely run into a dozen bulldog ants. With fire ants, you rarely run into fewer than several thousand. And while one fire ant sting is not much more than an inconvenience, you never get  _ **one**_  fire ant sting. You get fifty. Or two hundred. Or five hundred. They swarm up your leg if you stand too close to the mound, waiting until hundreds of them are in place, and then they all set down on you at once. It's an experience you won't soon forget. They aggressively defend their turf, and will come boiling out of their hill, itching for a fight, if one so much as drops a leaf on it.

If you can picture a cross between a high-security incarceration facility and a kicked fire ant mound, you'll have some idea of what the Special Unit looked like when Jinx showed up.

Oh, it's not as if this was the first time she'd ever been here. Far from it. Most of the personnel knew her on sight; most of the guards were on a first-name basis. She was, after all, a friendly sort, even when planning a breakout that might break a few heads. She treated it like a big game, and maybe to her it was. But that wasn't the issue.

Whenever a villain arrived at Probst, one of the first things they did was scan him or her for power levels. They had a convenient scale for such things (humans being happiest when they can categorize something) which ran from '0' for standard, non-super humans, to '20' for Superman. Not that they'd ever  _tried_  the equipment on Superman, mind you, but they did test Wonder Woman once, and she registered a solid 14. Jinx usually showed up somewhere between 6 and 8, a respectable level for someone of her abilities.

This time, when they hooked up the (unconscious) pink-haired villainess to the equipment, she buried the needle.

They re-calibrated and tested her again, with higher gain. The gauges pegged out, and the filter overloaded and blew.

Under-Warden Michael Starr was soon sweating. He didn't know how the hex-caster had gained such phenomenal ability – and would have given a lot to know – but he was very glad that she came to them out cold. Secondarily, he wondered what force could have done this to her, if she maxed out all their scales  _when still asleep!_  And thirdly, he wondered why she wasn't wearing anything. The whole situation was screwy, and in his experience,  _screwy_  meant  _trouble_.

He did, at least, have at his disposal a way to keep her from waking up, and took it post-haste. They set her up in a cryo-chamber on the lowest level of the Special Unit, hurriedly ran all the necessary lines, and locked her in. In very little time her mental processes had slowed to practically zilch, and he was breathing a little easier.

It wasn't until one of his aides suggested it that he thought to call the JLA. They would, surely, need to know about this turn of events.

 


	24. Questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Once upon a keyboard smeary, while I plunked out stories teary  
> All about the Titans' troubles, leaving them all tired and sore,  
> Suddenly I heard the whimper of a lawyer with distemper  
> As he clutched a legal notice, as he banged upon my door.  
> "Make no copyright infraction!" This he wheezed against my door.  
> Only this and nothing more.
> 
> -Concolor, with grave apologies to Edgar Allen Poe)

…  _Craven Memorial Hospital, Jump City, 8:35am …_

By dawn every last member of the hospital staff knew about the unconscious girl the police had brought in with the famous super-villainess, Jinx. Quite a few of them had been up to the fourth floor to see her and admire her exotic beauty. And a handful had taken surreptitious pictures with their cell phones.

The doctors didn't know whether the girl's skin color was natural or the result of some pathology, or possibly something Jinx had done to her. Her vital signs were normal, except for temperature, which was slightly high. The resident put her on a saline drip, just in case, but the phlebotomist who hooked her up had a great deal of difficulty getting a needle in; they kept bending for some reason. Lousy, cheap, foreign imported steel.

When eight o'clock rolled around and the day shift came on, the attending physician came by on her rounds. She did a cursory examination of the girl, finding nothing out of order (apart from her temperature, which seemed to be the only thing off-kilter). Then, just as she was about to leave, she noticed that the side of the bed was wet. Checking further, she was incensed to see that the needle for the saline drip was not in place. Moreover, when she examined the site, there was no evidence that the needle had ever actually been inserted. Well! That phlebotomist was going to get a Written Warning for this! Incompetent boob.

####

…  _the Office of the Features Editor, Jump City Times-Free Press, 9:10am …_

Acts of vandalism didn't normally rate much in the way of coverage at Jump City's premier fish-wrap. They were just another facet of life in a big city, and covering each one would be tedious, if not impossible. However, when a twelve-meter-deep crater appeared on Jump City Beach overnight, that played a different tune, and a reporter was dispatched without delay.

Ted Verris was a veteran – in both senses of the word, since he'd also done a stint in the Marines – and knew how to cover a story. Channel 6 already had a news van at the site when Ted got there, which made him wrinkle his nose. In his opinion their 'newscasts' could be sandwiched between Geraldo and Springer and no one would miss a beat. Flashing his PRESS card to the cop on duty (they'd closed the beach for the duration of the investigation) he trotted out to where the Caution tape was draped. He snapped several photos of the huge hole, but then noted the bits of fused sand-glass around its edges and cocked a glance back at Channel 6's 'on-the-spot' girl. It didn't seem as if the video crews were interested in getting any closer to the hole than they were – little 'Vanessa' had to have her dramatic backdrop, after all – and hadn't yet realized there was more to this than just some prank. He got a few close-up stills and then headed out.

Jump City's finest weren't normally all that chummy with the press, but Ted was an exception. He always played straight with them, had never done a chop-piece on the department, and they considered him 'safe' to talk to. Additionally, he had happened to be in the right place at the right time to draw down on a perp who was about to cap one of their own, and they figured they owed him. So when he showed up to look over Officer Torrington's report, no one made a peep.

He found it fascinating reading, made a few notes for his story, and tore off toward Craven Memorial as fast as he could get there.

####

…  _the Watchtower, 9:30am …_

The Flash was on monitor duty. It was something he didn't mind because he could do any number of other things at the same time and still give sufficient attention to the task. So even though he was deeply involved in a game of Go with J'onn, he answered the communications console on the second beep. "Watchtower."

"Ah, Flash. Very good. Hello, my name is Michael Starr. I'm over the Special Unit at Probst Prison."

"That's the meta-human containment center, right?"

"Right. You brought someone here once, that electrical criminal …"

"AfterShock. Yeah, I remember that. To what do we owe the pleasure? Or is there any pleasure to be had? Usually when a warden calls, it ain't good news."

"It isn't bad news, necessarily. We have Jinx in custody."

"Jinx?" That rang several bells, none of which played to his liking. "Wait. I thought she disappeared or something …"

"That was the rumor, yes, but she's back. We have her in the cryo unit."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. "That seems like overkill for her."

"Not any more. We did the standard power level test when she arrived, and she is off our charts."

The Flash sat up abruptly. He knew how their equipment worked. He knew that the readouts used a scale based on the natural logarithm. He knew he would register around 15 or 16 on their gauges, which meant that Jinx was now at least twenty and possibly fifty times as powerful as _ **he**_  was.

Not good.

"Who else knows about this?"

"No one outside the prison, but quite a few people on staff. It's very hard to keep something like that …"

"Right, right." He thought over his options. "And you say she's on ice?"

"As icy as they come."

"Okay. Just leave her there for the time being. I've got to talk to some people. If super-villains are starting to get ridiculously powerful for no reason … hey, wait a minute! If she's so strong, how did you get her into cold storage?"

"She was unconscious when she got here."

A few seconds rumination over that bit of info sent chills up Wally West's back. "Do you know how she got that way?"

"No, I don't. But I can tell you that the Jump City Police found her on the beach at the bottom of a really big crater. Maybe she fell out of a plane."

_Maybe. But I wouldn't count on it._  "Thank you, Mr. Starr. We'll be in touch."

####

…  _Probst Federal Prison, High-Security Wing, Special Unit, 9:35am…_

You might think it would be quiet in the sub-basement of a cryogenic containment unit, since no one ever moves. But you'd be wrong. It takes some hard-core equipment to maintain a successful 'freezer'. Big stuff. Expensive stuff. Highly advanced electronics and liquid-gas compressors and magnetohydrodynamic chillers and on and on and on. So there is almost a symphony of whirrs and hums and tics and drones and subsonic this-that-and-the-other going on constantly. Some people might find it distracting, but the ones chosen to work here, those that passed the qualification standards, had no such problems. They could tune it all out and work on other projects. The two people on duty now were good examples. They didn't let the electronic cacophony deter them from their goal of shagging each other silly on a cot behind a bank of electrical panels. So neither of them noticed when one of the perpetual background sounds suddenly stopped.

In the cryo-tank farthest from the door, a teenage girl with long, pink hair lay motionless. Her conscious mind was turned off, her bodily functions stilled. But despite that, occasional tiny crackles of bright-pink energy would run across her fingers.

Her mind might be in a holding pattern, but her spirit was under no such restriction.

It took careful timing and great attention to detail to maintain a safe cryogenic state. All the equipment had to be exactly on specification, some four hundred variables all kept within narrow constraints. If certain of those variables were to fall out of spec, an alarm would sound, and the technicians would correct the discrepancy. That, however, was a highly theoretical state of affairs, since the equipment ran so well the techs never had to intervene at all. Once a tank was set up, it operated flawlessly. They all did. Always. It was predictable enough that the technicians had developed a very lax attitude about their monitoring duties … thus the aforementioned shagging going on at the other end of the room.

But even if they  _had_  been paying a modicum of attention, they wouldn't have noticed anything since the alarm system was the first one to get deactivated.

They might have slowed her down, but Jinx wasn't out of the race. Not yet.

####

…  _Craven Memorial Hospital, 9:40am …_

"Jane Doe? We have a lot of Jane Does. Which one are you after?"

"Probably your newest arrival. Got here last night? Found on the beach?"

"Oh, her! Yeah." The Floor Supervisor gave Ted a bored look and clicked her nails on the counter. "What do you need to know?"

"I just need to see her."

"Why? You a relative?"

"I doubt it. But I think I may know who she is."

That sparked a bit of interest in her eyes. "Yeah? How?"

"I got her description from the police report. It sounds like it could be someone I know."

She stared at him for several drawn-out moments and then shrugged. "No skin off my nose." She pushed a buzzer and an orderly shortly appeared. "Hey, Jeff, would you show Mr. Verris down to 419?"

"Sure, Barb." He beckoned to the reporter. "This way."

And shortly Ted Verris was standing, wide-eyed, staring at Raven of the Teen Titans. "Holy shit! I was right!"

"About what?" Jeff wanted to know.

Ted whipped out his cell phone. He had the Titans' Tower public number on speed dial – most people in his line of work did – and waited impatiently while it rang four times. "You have reached the public line for the Teen Titans. We are not able to take your call at this time …"

When the standard message was finished and the line went  _beep_ , Ted said, "Hello, this is Ted Verris of the Times-FreePress. You might be interested to know that I have located your missing teammate. Please call me back at this number at your earliest convenience." He slid the cover shut and slipped the cell back into his pocket. Then he got out his camera.

"Hey, who is she?"

Ted snapped several photos from different angles. "You must not get out much."

"What's that crack supposed to mean?"

"Are you telling me you don't recognize her?"

That question earned him a dumb look.

"Think about it. Light gray skin. Dark blue-purple hair. How many people in Jump do you know who fit that description?"

Still no glimmer of recognition.

Ted smirked. "That's okay. You'll find out soon enough." He walked out to find a public terminal to file his story.  _No_   _way_  was he leaving the hospital until the Titans got there.

####

…  _the Watchtower, 10:00am …_

Wonder Woman shook her head. "That just doesn't seem plausible."

"Plausible or not, he's got the data to back it up. He sent me a file, and it's legit. Jinx has picked up some mad powers somewhere."

Arms crossed in thought, Superman gazed at a spot on the conference table until it began to char. Wally West elbowed his arm, bringing him out of his brown study. "Gonna stare a hole in the table. Literally."

"Sorry."

"What's got you so worked up?"

"Magic, that's what. I'm vulnerable to certain forms of magic, and if Jinx's power levels have jumped that much, I might not be much help in containing her."

"Don't sweat it. He's got her on ice, and there she's gonna stay."

"That may not be the safest place to keep her, though," put in Wonder Woman. "If they had a power failure …"

"Yeah, that occurred to me, too, but that's a danger no matter where she's stored."

"And it probably isn't something we need to worry about just yet anyway," answered Batman. "What concerns  _ **me**_  is how she picked up the power in the  _ **first**_  place."

"And," added Superman, "what knocked her out. If she's  _that_  powerful …"

The others nodded.

"At a minimum," concluded Batman, "we need to go examine her. I know she's a meta, but even so I don't see how her frame could handle power like that."

"That also is confusing," said Wonder Woman. Tapping a fist repeatedly on the table, she added, "And on top of what happened to Terra, and what has become of Beast Boy, and the general disarray in the Titans … by Hera, I don't  _need_  this."

They went their separate ways. Batman set up an analysis routine to check all the standard constants of the planet and see if anything else was off the beam. Wally called the warden back to arrange a visit for some of the Leaguers. Superman took to the skies to patrol and do some basic legwork. And Wonder Woman went to the sick bay to see if she could get three exhausted teenagers to go home and rest for a bit.

####

…  _Titans' Tower, 11:45am …_

The Watchtower shuttlecraft set down lightly on the helipad, disgorged its passengers, and rose quickly out of sight. They made their way over to the roof entrance, punched in the passcode, and  _schlumphed_  down the stairs. Starfire and Victor headed for their rooms. No one was in the mood to eat, anyway. Robin, purely from force of habit, went to the main console to check his messages.

A minute and forty-five seconds later, he was yelling for Victor and pounding on Starfire's door. Less than two minutes past that, they were all in the T-Car and Cyborg was pushing his baby for all she was worth.

####

…  _Craven Memorial, 12:10pm …_

The nursing supervisor looked up in shock when three of the Teen Titans zipped out of the stairwell. Robin spotted her and ran over. "Where is the Jane Doe with purple hair?"

Her mouth gaping slightly, she pointed down the hall. "419."

They made it to the room and pulled up short at the door. Ted Verris was standing there, and got a candid shot of the three of them as they came to a sudden halt. Then he grinned, stepped aside, and held an arm out toward the bed.

Starfire spoke first, hugging herself and spinning wildly in the air beside Raven's bed. "It's her! It's her! It's her! It's her! It's her!"

Victor checked her vitals and frowned. "She seems fine except for being asleep." Looking over at Ted, he asked, "How long she been like this?"

"Since they found her, I guess. That's why she's a Jane Doe."

Star grabbed him in a back-breaking hug. "Thank you so much, Mister Newspaper Person!" His gasping alerted her to his distress, and she set him down. He nearly fell over.

Robin steadied him sympathetically. "Sorry about that. Happens." Then he got the man a chair and started firing off questions. Five minutes later he knew very little more than he had to start with.

Cyborg got his attention, "Rob, I think we ought to let the Watchtower specialists have a look at her."

Moving over to stand beside his sleeping teammate, Robin slowly nodded. "Yeah. J'onn J'onzz is up there. If anybody can sort out a head, it's him." He pulled out his communicator.

####

…  _the Watchtower, 4:20pm …_

There wasn't much space in the tiny room that the Martian mentalist had chosen to do his psychic delving. That wasn't an accident, but he had to shoo everyone else out anyway. Then he set himself up behind her, placed his fingertips lightly on her head, and jumped in.

Robin paced back and forth in front of the door. Starfire floated around in worried circles. Victor reconfigured one of his subsystems into a  _very_ sensitive directional listening device and pointed it at the room. And Wonder Woman fought back a smile as she watched them. They could be forgiven for excessive mother-hennity, considering how much they had stressed over their lost teammate.

Batman walked up. "I've run a prelim on her, using the same algorithms Probst uses."

"Oh? I wasn't aware …"

"She's off the scale."

"… Beg pardon?"

"It's Jinx all over again. Raven's prior basal state was around ten, but it fluctuated a lot based on her emotions. We never really got a good feel for how much she might have if she just let loose because she  _never_  let loose. That whole deal with Trigon, though … maybe it opened something. I can't say. I don't have any more recent data on her, since that incident."

"… Wait … You think she and Jinx and Trigon …"

"I don't know what to think. All I do know is that behind that door is a young woman who contains enough power to pulverize this station without breaking a sweat."

Coincidentally, at that precise moment a shudder went through the Watchtower and they all had to grab something to keep from tripping. Black mist seeped out from around the door, which promptly disintegrated into dust. Raven, no longer wearing the hospital gown they brought her in, floated out of the door. Everyone else took a few steps back, gaping at the four glowing red slits where they assumed her face should be.

She scanned the assemblage, zeroing in on Robin, and spoke.

_. . . . . . . Somewhere there is an ancient tomb holding the decayed essence of beings too evil for human comprehension. They are not entirely dead, not entirely gone, and within that tomb lie madness and torment and nightmare. Opening the door to that tomb gets their attention, brings you into focus, names you a target. The walkers in darkness that wait for you will truly make you regret you ever drew your first breath . . . . . . ._

It was with a voice that conjured up all these images and seared them forever in their minds that Raven asked,

_**"Where … Is … Jinx?"** _

__


	25. Things Go Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Once more, with feeling: Please understand that the Teen Titans, Jump City, Darkseid, Jinx, the H.I.V.E., and all other references to established DC canon belong to someone else [that would be DC]. I do this because it's fun, not because it pays well. Um … that is … unless you count feedback in the form of reviews as payment, which I DO, so actually I guess it DOES pay well … just not in money. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 25_

…  _not far from the JLA Moonbase, the morning of the day Raven awoke …_

Garfield Logan paced the circumference of his prison, turned, paced in the opposite direction, turned, paced clockwise again …

He had awakened here three days ago. Memories of his capture were fleeting, a result of the sedative they'd finally managed to get into his system. Clearly enough did he recollect finding the headquarters of the gang he intended to eliminate. Also Terra's approach, and a little of their conversation. After that … not so much. Glimpses of running men approaching; a feeling as if he were falling; a look of shock and terrible pain on Terra's face. That was about it.

The uncertainty of what happened ate at him, as did worry for what became of Terra. Why did she have to be there? Surely the other Titans forced her. She was still the only real crush he'd ever had, and he didn't want anything bad to happen to her. It was probably Robin's fault;  _had_ to be Robin's fault! He had no idea how long he'd been unconscious, and that infuriated him, made him want to lash out. His long tail swished around dangerously.

Looking back at himself, he hissed in disgust. It was a good form, if one had to be  _stuck_  in one form, strong and nearly indestructible, but it severely limited his ability to manipulate things. Not that there was anything to manipulate in this God-forsaken  _force bubble_  on the fucking _Moon_ , for fuck's sake! Flexing his claws, he took a desultory swipe at the bubble wall. The energy field bulged slightly, and he left no mark. Just like all the other times.

Shortly after waking up, he got to watch as his captors brought him food: a large plate, in its own little energy bubble, holding a couple of slabs of meat (one cooked and one raw) and a selection of bread and vegetables. They placed it just outside his prison, backed off, and fiddled with a control box. The two bubbles merged and the plate slid inside. Curiously, he sniffed it, but then left it alone. He wasn't hungry. He wasn't even sure that this creature ate  _anything_ , in the usual sense. Nor had he needed to piss or crap, and a brief examination showed that he seemed to have no orifices to allow either act. But ignoring the plate resulted in its removal later.

Another thing that puzzled him was why they bothered to keep him alive at all. From what he'd picked up over the last couple of months, the FBI wanted him dead. Dead, as in, fed through a wood chipper. Dead, as in, his remains dropped into the sun. Sincerely dead. Obviously someone else had more clout. They'd have to, to get him into this cheery little paradise. He certainly wouldn't be killing any more Earth-based villains, that much was sure.

He discovered that his prison's foundation was some kind of physical substance, rather than a further extension of the force field. He felt pretty sure he could dig his way out if he wanted to. Not that it would do him any good. He did need to breathe, so the nice, hard vacuum that ran to the horizon was a better prison than any physical cell could hope to be.

The pacing stopped. Lying down, facing away from the camera set up outside the dome to monitor his every move, he considered his options again … and found them dreary. Again. He hated that camera. He hated being watched, that is, against his will. He always had. No privacy here, and not even anyone to talk to.

That gave him a sudden thought. He got up, turned, and stared at the camera. Then he prodded the floor a few times. Then he extended one claw and scratched letters into the hard alloy. Finishing his message, he stuck his tongue out at the camera (he couldn't form any obscene gestures with his paws), ambled away a few steps, and flopped back down.

After a few minutes the camera unit extended an arm and moved the recorder up and over the dome, positioning it over the words that Changeling had written. In the Moonbase, one of the technicians looked at the other and said, "He wants a  _what?"_

"A laptop."

####

…  _in the Rift …_

Darkseid turned his back on the dark gore liberally splattered around the torture chamber. "It knows nothing. Kill it."

"Yes, Dread Lord." Desaad – still shaken and suitably chastised from the time he spent in the tormented limbo of his master's eyes – chose a long object from a storage rack, considered the miserable figure hanging from the collection of hooks, and made a short, swift jab into its body just below where the tentacles were attached to its midsection. He twisted it to extend the barbs, and then yanked it back out. The being twitched and mewled in agony for close to a minute before finally bleeding out. Then Desaad motioned to one of his lackeys, who quickly removed the corpse. "Would you like to interrogate another, Dread Lord?"

Darkseid didn't answer. He stood in front of a view-plate showing the small, dark world they had found. It huddled close to its primary, a dim orange-yellow dwarf whose surface was covered with sunspots. The inhabitants had proved useless. They formed what might be thought of as a world-spanning hive mind, except they had free will, to a degree. They were individual enough to carry on limited trade with each other. He studied the planet, noting the many recently-scourged areas, the fires raging everywhere, the poisoned seas. His shock troops had been most thorough. It would be a miracle if the race survived.

"I have seen enough. Their rude telekinetic powers stopped your sensory sphere's transmission. That is all." Turning to leave, he said, "Make for the next one. And I trust you will not waste my time."

####

…  _elsewhere …_

K'Naa spent a great deal of effort following the thoughts of the two human girls that had come to mean so much to her … and was worried sick as a result. She had not expected that the warp journey would knock them out so thoroughly. That made her connection with their minds very tenuous indeed.

It may have been a factor of K'Naa's own unique makeup, or it may be a universal constant among telepathic races, but the speed of thought – _pure_  thought, not the wet-ware mechanics involved in producing it – seemed to be very close to infinite. It was certainly millions of times that of light. K'Naa never questioned the case, having had nothing with which to compare it; she merely accepted that she could access others' thoughts in real time, with no perceptible lag. Of course, since the  _power_  behind her mind was several orders of magnitude greater than that of any other telepath that ever lived, psychic interplanetary communication was a moot point for the rest of the galaxy.

But it  _did_  take concentration, and the farther away a mind was, the more concentration was required. Thirteen thousand parsecs was a hell of a stretch by any standard, and even with the spiritual alignment they shared, it was difficult. At first she had a steady (if whisper-thin) connection, but it quickly damped until now she could just barely detect dear Rachel, and dear Jinx not at all.

And, although her original, planetary consciousness never slept or needed to, the human facsimile that she had created  _did_  require rest. It was currently asleep, so the duality of her present state was drastically reduced. This enabled her to give her whole mind over to the problem of getting back into contact with the girls, and to this she bent her considerable will.

####

…  _Probst Federal Prison …_

Maximum-security prisons all tend to work pretty much the same way. The guards always assume the inmates are armed and treat them as such. The prisoners are separated by type and class and affiliation, so that the Skinheads are never in the yard at the same time as the MS-13 crowd or the Bandidos; the 'mere' career criminals aren't forced to rub shoulders with the truly violent types. In the case of Probst there was yet another level of complexity: they had to separate the super-villains from everyone else.

Fortunately there weren't that many of them (super-villains, that is) and roughly a third of them were either in solitary or in some sort of stasis. The ones with "natural" powers – that is, not mechanically augmented – were fitted with damper collars when not in their cells. The super-villain cellblock was also fully damped. And most of the time this arrangement worked about as well as one could expect.

Of course that didn't mean that they never had "incidents". That would be too much to expect out of  _any_  prison population, much less a maximum-security facility. But with few exceptions, the guards and the automated systems were able to quell anything that got more than a little out of hand. They had good procedures and better equipment, and felt as secure as they had any right to be.

Today, though, was destined to be one of the exceptions.

It started during the late-morning exercise period. The guards had a mezzanine with a steel-grating floor some four or five meters off the ground that ran all around the yard. Half a dozen of them would patrol it whenever the prisoners were present. They were armed, naturally, but never drew their weapons unless they were forced to. This group in the yard now was one of the ones they had to watch closely: members of an outlaw motorcycle gang, their particular club insisted that initiates assassinate a member of a rival club to even be  _considered_  for membership. Every last individual currently hulking around the yard was in for LWOP … Life WithOut Parole. They held a fierce loyalty to other members of their gang, and a fierce hatred of anything that smacked of law enforcement or civilized society. And to a man they had  _ **REAL**_  short tempers.

Things started going south about 11:15 when one of the guards tripped over a loose spot in the mezzanine and fell on his face. On his way down, he managed to catch his other foot in the railing and wrench his knee badly enough that he couldn't stand on it; this brought hoots of derision and several dozen crude curses from the inmates. Two of the guards helped him up and carried him down to the infirmary. In the commotion, no one noticed the tiny pink crackles of what looked like static running along the steel. The three guards that were left remained extra vigilant.

Five minutes later one of the guards moved to lean on the railing in the same spot where the first one fell; it had come loose from the mezzanine floor and shifted under his weight, throwing him off-balance, and he jerked back, grabbing for anything he could reach. In his flailing, he knocked his sidearm loose from its holster. It dropped over the edge to the yard below, and was immediately pounced on by one of the gang-bangers, who pumped several rounds into the guard who had fumbled it. He then turned to aim at one of the others, but the two guards that were left both opened fire on him. There was another general scramble for the gun, another gang member got it, and was himself shot down before he could fire. By that point the guards had reached the door; they ran out, and sounded the General Lockdown.

Tiny, pink sparks began showing up elsewhere.

In the prison kitchen, the cooks were getting everything ready for lunch. Their ovens and stovetops were all propane-fired, but they were always careful to follow procedures and turn everything off if for any reason they couldn't remain in the kitchen. Under Lockdown, they were required to gather with the rest of the Facilities support staff out in the main cafeteria. And it just so happened that when one of the cooks' helpers shut off the stove he was working on, the valve cracked. He didn't notice anything as he hurried out of the kitchen, but propane was leaking steadily into the room. A muted, pink crackle of static ran up the doorframe.

In the southeast guard tower, at 11:25, the surveillance system monitors turned a weird shade of fuchsia and then simply stopped working. The frantic staff sent for the maintenance crew.

Guards all over the prison used small electric carts to get around in the huge place. Two of them were high-tailing it to their Lockdown rendezvous point when suddenly all four tires broke into pieces. At the same time, everything else in the prison that was made of rubber became unreasonably brittle.

At 11:40, the circuit holding the doors shut in Cell Block H-1 failed. They all pulled open most of the way until the back-up circuit took over and reclosed them. Two inmates got their hands closed in the doors and had to go to the infirmary. Six minutes later the same thing happened in Cell Block H-3, and five more inmates needed the nurse. Word passed quickly, so when the doors to H-2 started opening, every last man was able to slip out free and clear.

Now, the Cell Block policy was very different from the exercise yard policy. Since all the doors could be controlled individually, occupancy was first-in-first-out. That meant a random mix of types and affiliations on the Block. Almost as soon as the men were in the corridor, a fight broke out. Then another. Then two more. Then there was a general donnybrook involving all forty prisoners. More than half of them were dead inside two minutes. Those left were all non-enemies to the extent that they could call a truce and start trying to figure a way out of the prison.

The warden assigned a guard to watch the controls for all the doors so that he could execute a manual override if any more circuits failed; he was very busy for the next hour. Lunch was postponed for the duration of the crisis.

Around 12:30, something backed up the drains in one of the shower rooms while at the same time, oddly, an old pipe in the wet-wall burst. There was a drain that should have conducted any leaks in that wall to the main sewer, but, it too was inexplicably blocked. The water, now enthusiastically shooting out around three of the sinks, was dammed in the room by a tight door, and filled it half a meter deep before finding and enlarging a crack in the tile under a window. It poured down inside that wall, falling all the way to the sub-basement, where it began leaking into an air-handling junction.

By 12:40 the maintenance people had found the root problem with the tower monitors and got them back on line. They were packing up their equipment when the entire tower went dark … except for several muted trails of pink static here and there.

The sub-basement air-handling junction led over to a bank of electrical panels. Since Lockdown was underway, the two techs normally on duty were in a different room. They weren't there to witness the brief shower of sparks – some of them pink – that preceded the main power breaker tripping …

… but then, after a lull of no more than a few milliseconds, the UPS kicked in and turned on the generator. Strangely, though, it so happened that the way the secondary system was designed had an exploitable flaw in the distribution network. One of the chillers was supposed to be wired three-phase but was only receiving power through two of them. That made the unit's compressor overheat after only a few minutes, and the chiller shut off …

… which sent a signal to the alarm system. Ordinarily the techs would have been all over the problem, fixing the cryogenic unit before anything else came apart. But this time, since the alarm system was already disabled (and the techs weren't even in the room) nothing was done. After several minutes the temperature in the tank climbed high enough that the unit hit a pre-determined limit, and so to prevent the death of the person in the tank – coincidentally, a nineteen-year-old girl with pink hair – the control automatically initiated the Restore sequence. This meant that, in a few hours, the occupant of the tank would wake up, dizzy, disoriented, and with a killer headache.

Out in front of the prison, at 13:00 sharp, a tall flagpole bearing state and national banners creaked, swayed in the wind, and fell over.

The small sub-armory in the northeast guard tower contained five canisters of tear gas. At 13:20 they all blew simultaneously, emptying the tower.

A few minutes later the exercise yard mezzanine finally gave way completely. The gang-bangers were all sitting against the wall when the whole thing fell to the ground, crushing seven of them to death and seriously injuring the rest. Because of Lockdown, two of them would die from their wounds before any help could arrive.

In the warden's office, at a quarter of three, a fire started in his wastebasket. He, suspecting a bomb, instantly grabbed it up and gave it a heave out his window. His office was on the top floor of Central Tower One, and overlooked all the common areas of the prison. The flaming basket arced out and down, down, down to the roof of E Building. E Building is where the cafeteria is housed; the cafeteria whose kitchen had been filling with propane for the past two hours, and now contained enough of the potent gas that it was leaking out of every crack. The wastebasket hit the roof and bounced, flinging burning bits of paper everywhere. One of them happened to cross the path of a dense stream of leaking propane …

In the sub-basement, huddled in a worried mass, the technicians all flinched at a dull  **HHRRRUMP**  that vibrated the ground and shook a light rain of dust down on them from the overhead pipes.

In the room next door, Jinx was still officially in hibernation. Her heart did not move – yet – nor did her eyes flicker or her chest rise and fall. She was a corpsicle, to all outward intents. But tiny pink fires raced everywhere, across the control panel, the tank, the floor, walls, and ceiling. They were short, and so fast you'd miss them if you blinked, but they were there. The hex energy bled off her body constantly and always had. The problem now is that she has never before had  _so much_  hex energy to work with, or so finely-tuned a body to handle it. As K'Naa knew, more than just her spirit had to change for her to be able to handle the warp field.

A  _lot_  more.

 


	26. Haywire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (The Titans belong to DC. This plot belongs to me. We cool? -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 26_

…  _the Watchtower, Raven's perspective …_

Much too much time had passed since my last good, long, serious (or not) visit with my emotions. My time with Jinx on K'Naa was so rich, so fulfilling, so free of any real emotional turmoil, that it hadn't been necessary. I hadn't even meditated, not once! But immediately after we initiated the warp, here I was, plopped down into my mental landscape, right at the entrance to Happy's domain. The bright Emotion did a good imitation of Starfire at her cheeriest, swooping in and grabbing me up and swinging me around and around. I'm normally pretty staid and taciturn with them, especially Happy, but I just couldn't quite bring myself to reprimand her, and for once simply went with the flow.

It turned out to be a remarkably pleasant experience. Perhaps my time with Jinx and K'Naa was beneficial in more ways than the obvious ones.

After getting Happy caught up on the late developments, I made the rounds of all my emotions, visiting them and getting each one's peculiar take on recent events. It was while talking with Intelligence that I began to feel a disturbance. It occurred to me at that instant that I didn't know how long the trip to Earth ought to take, but  _surely_  we should be there by now. While it was true that time didn't pass at the same rate on Earth as it did here in the psychic realm, the discrepancy couldn't possibly be  _this_  much!  _Hours_  and  _hours_  must have fled by while I held discourse with my compartmentalized mind!

Intelligence got my attention. "I find no flaws in your analysis. You should definitely be on Earth by now."

"I have stayed in here too long. But what is that? I feel … another presence."

"I cannot fathom an answer for that conundrum," responded Intelligence. "It does not feel like Jinx."

I rose and walked toward the gate. "I think perhaps I should leave now."

The Emotion said, "I concur," as she picked up a book.

Walking out into the common area, I adopted a meditative pose, focused my energies, and sent out a questing thought …

####

…  _J'onn's perspective …_

Zatanna talked to me when this girl first showed up four years ago, asking for help. She suspected Raven of having hidden motives, and she was right about that, but they weren't  _maleficent_  motives. Yes, she had a demonic aura; that would be because she is a half-demon. But her goal was always to  _defeat_  her sire, not  _aid_  him, and in that she succeeded. But Zatanna didn't trust her then, and doesn't trust her now.

The Batman has no qualms about letting his ward team up with her, and if there is any human whose judgment I would trust, he is the one. Stern and unyielding in his code, that one is.

Her teammates love her; that much is clear. They have moved heaven and earth in their tireless quest to find her, to help her. And then  _ZAP!_ She shows up in the hospital. And if the reports are accurate, she appeared alongside the villainess Jinx, both of them unconscious at the bottom of a huge crater. Would that I could have seen  _ **that**_  battle! From a safe distance.

I have secured the room. They all wanted to watch, but I prefer not to work that way, so they are out there and we are in here.

She looks so fragile, so pale and small. It is difficult to keep in my mind that she has a demonic heritage, and is as tough as they come. I position myself behind her, where she lies on the examination table, and touch her forehead for better contact …

####

…  _and back to Third Person Omniscient (I love doing it that way!) …_

Raven's eyes twitched as she rose up towards consciousness; the first thing that registered was that someone – some  _thing_  – was trying to weasel into her mind, and she clamped down on it savagely.  _Sorry, Bozo, no admittance!_

J'onn had no more than begun when something attacked him. It couldn't be the girl; she was still out cold. In that first millisecond past recognition, he assumed there was a possessing spirit. It would have to be excised.

Mentally, Raven gasped. The invading presence fought back! It found a crack and wedged itself in, determined to breach her barrier, but in doing so she got a quick peek into his mind … and got a flash of a picture of Jinx! Well, she didn't know what it thought it was going to accomplish, but whatever it was, it had another think coming. She tapped into her lower mind, releasing her soul-self …

J'onn could feel the OTHER when it arose, enormous and strong and dark – so dark. It was far and away the most powerful astral form he had ever encountered, swatting away his best attacks with no perceptible exertion. In growing alarm he tried to withdraw …

Hah! The invader was trying to run? Oh, no. Not after that glimpse she got of her lover! This character knew something. Her eyes fluttered open then (all four of them) and she saw a tall, green humanoid hunched over her … and wafting about him was the stuff of her soul-self. With a thought, she trussed him up, a rock-hard lid going down over his mind, just in case he was thinking about calling for help. Sitting up then, and quickly taking in her barren surroundings, she determined that she was most likely being held prisoner somewhere, and her captors had brought in this psion to pick at her brain. More the fools they. She smirked at the idea; they should have found someone  _powerful_ , not this weak, pathetic example. It took the merest exercise of will on her part to close down his little shop for the duration.

Going back to the image she'd gleaned from his mind, she studied the picture of Jinx, suddenly worried for the girl. In the photo she was lying on a gurney, apparently unconscious. How much time had really passed? Where were they? What in the world had happened? Had Earth been invaded by these …

Wait a minute.

She turned back and looked closely at the green humanoid. The soul-self slipped down off his face, revealing blank eyes. Walling them both in with a layer of the black mist, she took the hold off his mind, and could tell instantly when he regained control.

"Raven, please, let me go! I am trying to help!"

"You're J'onn J'onzz, aren't you?"

"Yes! Why are you doing this?"

"Where is Jinx?"

"… Jinx? Uh … The last report we had was that Jinx was in prison. You don't have to worry about her."

"Prison?  _How?"_

"Ah … she was unconscious and so …"

His sentence dying on the vine, he felt gelid fingers grip his heart, and slid easily down into unconsciousness.

Raven fumed.  _We go through all this effort, all the work we did, learning how to use the warp so that we could come back HOME and tell OUR PEOPLE about K'Naa, and THIS is the thanks we get? Locked up like … like …_

Her soul-self integrated its substance with the door, then reduced that object to its component atoms. The same had already happened to her hospital gown. Her ire mounting by the second, she floated out the opening and confronted the assembled heroes standing there, her psionic waves chilling and paralyzing them.

 

" _ **Where … Is … Jinx?"**_  


 

####

…  _inside Probst Federal Prison …_

"You better be fuckin' sure about this, Grove."

"I am, Kent, don't get yer panties in a twist. Shorty only gives me the straight shit. He says she's here, she's here."

The small group of murderers and terrorists picked their way through the rubble, found a staircase, and followed it down as far as it went. The door was locked, but that's why they'd brought the explosives. Two of them could wire up a bomb from just about anything, so that was no problem. It wasn't too long before they stood in the cryogenics department.

One of them wanted to know, "Why'd they ice her? And why do  _ **we**_  want her?"

"Word I got was she's total badass now. Got a upgrade or some shit. We wanna get outta here with no holes, we gonna need leverage. We bust her outta the freezer, then just follow her out."

"What makes ya think she'll let us tag along?"

"She'll be grateful, cause we busted her out, moron."

A few of them thought privately that his plan was less than optimal, but they didn't say so.

Grove walked down the row, peering into each tank, finally stopping in front of Jinx. "Sunnabitch. They put 'er in raw."

The men gathered around, admiring the view. One of them opined, "I'd tap that." He got a 'Hell, yeah' and 'Damn straight' and the like in response.

Another man asked, "Hey, Grove, how come there ain't no frost on her?"

He frowned at that, then laid a hand on the glass. It was only slightly cool.

Another man said, "Hey, look! Looks like she's breathin'. She 'sposed ta do that?"

Grove squinted around at the controls for Jinx's tank, trying to decipher the words and images scrolling past. "It's in some kinda … mode … yeah, mode … called 'Restore'. Any clue what that means?"

"Restore? … ain't that like when ya take somethin' back ta the way it was?"

The fluid level in the tank began to drop, replaced by breathable atmosphere. When her head was uncovered, the oxygen mask withdrew, trailing sticky strings of mucus. Another chemical was added to the air supply, a stimulant that increased her heart rate, and  _drastically_ increased the production of certain, specific hormones in the brain. Her eyes flew open, she gasped, and immediately began to cough. Her containment unit's cover lifted up and back. A hand flailed, grabbed something and pulled her into a sitting position.

"Jinx?"

The voice didn't ring any bells. Besides that, her vision was blurry and her head was killing her.  _Well, let's just see if we can fix that._

Hex energy sprang from her form, illuminating the room in stark fuchsia. All the men yelled and scrambled away, trying to find some place to hide.

She let the powerful probability-altering flux bathe her for a few seconds. When the brilliant pulsing had died to a muted glow, she was standing there in a pink ensemble: a loose, three-quarter-sleeve, midriff-baring shirt (off one shoulder); Capri pants; a wide, sparkly belt that sat on her hips; and Peter-Pan-style ankle boots. "Hey, guys!"

Several sets of eyes peered out from behind various objects.

"What's the deal? Where am I?"

Grove stood up. "You don't know?"

"Is this Earth?"

His face was the very image of confusion. "Uh … Yeah. Earth, sure."

"Anywhere close to Jump City?"

"Few klicks west o' here." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

She nodded. "Okay, then! We hit it pretty good."

The men glanced at each other. "Hit … what?"

"The planet. Hell, the city! Yay me!" She looked around at the assembly of terribly confused faces and giggled. "You guys – well, the whole planet – you've kinda been outta the loop." She narrowed her eyes at them. "By the way, where's Rachel?"

To a man, they were afraid to say anything.

"Sorry,  _Raven_. The Titan? Purple hair, great rack?"

The level of perplexity in the room rose markedly.

"You guys aren't being much help." She looked around, finally noticing the other cryogenic tanks. "What the hell?" She touched the one she'd been in. "Holy shit! How long have I been here?"

Finally! A question he could answer! "Ya got here yestiddy. They slammed ya inta th' freezer right off."

"Okay. Yesterday. So where's Raven?"

That bought her a chorus of shrugs. "You come in alone."

"In? In where? What is this place?"

"Probst."

That shocked her to silence.  _Probst Penitentiary? The hell? What, they found me and took me straight to prison and socked me into cold storage? Just like that? What the fuck?_

Grove edged forward a few centimeters. "Say, uh, we got a problem an' we was, uh, hopin' you could help."

"Yeah? What problem?"

"Well … the prison kinda fell apart today an' we was …"

"Stop." She held up a hand. "What do you mean, 'fell apart'?"

"All kinds o' shit breakin' all over th' place, fires, water pipes bustin' …"

Another man jumped in, "An' th' cafeteria blew up."

Yet another: "An' all th' guards left, an' they're all outside, and they're keepin' us in here an' we was thinkin', y'know, you being a super-villain an' all, that you could bust out an' … uh … y'know … take us … along?"

They couldn't tell if she was listening at that point. Flexing her fingers, she called up a sprite of hex energy, letting it dance in the air above her hand.  _Shit. I think I really screwed the pooch this time._  She caught Grove's eye. "Anybody dead?"

"Oh,  _ **hell**_ , yeah! Bandidos got their shit kicked, most o' the Crips are toasty, an' I think  _ **all**_  those Afgan bastards got the shiv. Some guards, not many, though. Prob'ly, oh, a hundred, hundred an' a half, all told."

"God!" she yelled. "Damn-shit-fucking- _mother_ fuck!"

The men backed up a step.

"Sorry, guys, I gotta see about fixing my mess." There was a bright streak of pink that left fading afterimages in their eyes, and they were alone.

####

…  _outside Probst Federal Prison …_

Nearly a quarter of the prison's human inmate population was dead, killed in the riots or the fires. The central tower leaned drunkenly, part of its foundation having been destroyed when the kitchen blew up. Very fortunately, the building's designers had foreseen just such a leak, and so the majority of the force from the blast went straight through the roof. Only a few of the staff were injured, and none of them killed … by the explosion, that is. Two of them did die a couple of hours later, when the inmates from Cell Block B2 found them. The rest of the staff managed to run away, and joined the general exodus of guards from the prison, once the main power station blew.

Now, some three hours after the first explosion, the guards were all ranged around the perimeter, armed with carbines and shotguns … and several M14s and RPGs, courtesy of the local regiment of National Guard. They showed up twenty minutes ago, with news crews from several television stations right on their heels. The warden, using a bullhorn, had informed the prisoners that anyone venturing outside would be shot on sight. The prisoners forced them to prove that point a few times before they stopped trying to escape.

Some of the super-villains  _ **had**_  escaped, though … the ones that could fly, at any rate. That was the reason there were currently no helicopters in the area. One of the villains, a nasty brute who went by Firewall, had systematically blown four of them out of the sky before tearing off to the north. The remaining super-villains – unbeknownst to the prison staff – were now gathered inside the east wall, working out a plan to break the cordon.

The warden was at his wits' end, and the Colonel in charge of the National Guard was right there with him. No one could raise the Titans (or the JLA, since the only direct communication hub for them was inside the prison … and dead) and most of the advanced tools they had for keeping the super-villains in line had to be left behind when they fled the grounds. They had managed to retain a few ultra-high-power rail guns, a force-field generator, and a small-area-effect null bomb that would turn off a meta-human's powers and render him unconscious for a while. They hoped. The math was sound, but it had never actually been live-fire tested.

The Colonel was trying to get a patch through to the National Headquarters to register a plea for help from the JLA when the sky overhead darkened. He glanced up, puzzled, because the day had been completely clear and was supposed to remain so. But then his mouth dropped open. He set his radio down and tapped the warden on the shoulder. By then most of the men were staring upward. The warden whispered, "Holy hell."

Raven's soul-self, in its Great Bird form, blotted out much of the sky. Rushing toward them, and creating near-hurricane-force winds in the process, the gargantuan image paused when it was maybe three hundred meters above the prison. Most of the men then gasped and grabbed their heads. The warden would have, but as soon as Raven made contact with his mind, she stopped poking around in the others, and simply appeared in front of him.

She was clad in a skin-tight suit of sparkling black that trailed dozens of smoky tendrils. Four red and glowing slits in her face concentrated on the warden. Everyone else ran the opposite direction as fast as they were able.

" _ **Where … Is … Jinx?"**_  


__

The pink-haired girl popped up beside her and slipped her hand around an arm. "I'm right here, Sweetie!"

####

…  _Probst Federal Prison, somewhat later that day …_

Michael Starr stood at the window, gazing down onto the prison yard. Everything was neat and tidy, all the towers straight and unmarred, all the electronics working flawlessly. The cafeteria building's new roof gleamed in the setting sun, its white coating tinged coral.

He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck.  _I am_ _seriously_ _getting too old for this shit._  A bright spot in the sky caught his attention and he watched as the JLA shuttle approached. Glancing over his shoulder at the two girls sitting on the couch in his (radically upgraded) office, chatting animatedly, he cleared his throat to get their attention. "They're here. Or they will be in a few minutes."

Raven nodded. "Yeah, I felt them. They aren't happy."

He vented a humorless chuckle. "Neither am I."

"Hey, if you hadn't decided to just drop her into cold storage like a slab of meat, none of this would have happened."

He held up both hands. "And for that I am sorry. Under the circumstances, given the power levels she evinced, we felt we had no choice."

"But you didn't even wait to  _ask_  anyone! You've got a bunch of meta-humans in the prison here. Haven't you ever read anything about claustrophobic transference reaction? You practically  _guaranteed_  a …"

"And if she'd had evil intent, what then? She's a known villain! Got a rap sheet as long as my arm! She had enough power, obviously, to level the place if she felt the urge! Hell, she  _ **fixed**_  it all without breaking a sweat!"

"You didn't even try. I'm not the only empath on this rotten planet. If she …"

Jinx broke in, "Hey. The Jinx is present. I'm right here, guys, can we stop talking about us in the third person?"

Rachel hugged her close. "Sorry, Hon. Got a little carried away."

Michael walked slowly over to his chair and gingerly eased himself into it. He'd been dealing with hereditary back problems his whole adult life, and while the drugs helped most days, sometimes he just had to grit his teeth and try not to groan.

Raven perked up, staring at him. "You are in pain."

"It's nothing. Slipped disc, that's all."

She floated over to him. Without the four red eyes, the fangs, and the living cloak of mind-numbing blackness, she seemed almost … safe. He considered that false advertising. "It's your back?"

"Yeah. Runs in the family."

"May I see?"

"… Are you a … what, a chiropractor?"

"I guess you could say that." She extended a hand, and Michael felt a warmth begin to grow along his spine.

"What are you doing?"

"How does that feel now?"

He frowned, then wiggled in his seat. Eyes wide, he got up and walked around his desk, stretched up on his toes and then bent at the waist. "Damnation!"

Nodding in satisfaction, Raven floated back over to Jinx, who gathered the smaller girl onto her lap.

"How'd you … what are … do you have any idea …"

"Slow down, Mr. Starr. Take a deep breath and hold it for a count of four."

He did. Then he asked, "Can you do that with cancer?"

"I don't know. I haven't tried. Your problem was just misalignment with a touch of cartilaginous hardening. Easy to fix. Cancer, now … that's different."

Jinx giggled. "Bet I could do it."

Raven gave her a quick kiss. "I bet you could, you little minx!"

"Ha! Jinx the Minx! I gotta get some bumper stickers!"

Michael turned away, fighting a blush. The girls had been … emotionally demonstrative since finding each other. His secretary buzzed in. "The Justice League is here, sir!"

"Thanks, Marta, send 'em on in."

They entered single-file, Superman first, then Wonder Woman, J'onn J'onzz, the Flash, and Batman. Following them were the rest of the active Teen Titans. The Justice Leaguers looked grim; the Titans held fear in their eyes, fear for what might happen to their friend, fear of what she may have become.

Raven floated up and over to the Martian Manhunter. "I am really very dreadfully sorry for over-reacting the way I did. Can you forgive me?"

He gazed at her in concern. "I don't believe forgiveness need be considered. You sensed a threat and moved to counter it." Throwing a look at Batman, he added, "If I had learned beforehand how powerful you had become, I would not have made the attempt. But I do thank you for releasing me before you left the Watchtower."

Starfire zipped up to Raven. With tears threatening to spill onto her cheeks, she took the empath's hands in hers. "Raven, my dear friend, are you truly okay?"

"Yes, Star." And she surprised the Tamaranian – and everyone else besides Jinx – by pulling her into a fierce hug. "I'm so much better than okay that you simply won't believe it." Starfire squealed in response and spun them both around.

Superman and Batman exchanged a significant look.  _She really has changed. But is it for the better?_

Robin cleared his throat. "Raven?"

She looked up at him with a gentle smile. "You want to know where we've been."

"Uh … yeah. You've, um, obviously been through some changes …"

"And then some!" interrupted Jinx, bouncing to her feet and floating over next to her girlfriend. They put their arms around each other's waist.

Cyborg asked, "So … are you two … an item?"

Raven simply nodded, her smile growing.

"And her being a villain …"

Jinx put in, "EX-villain, please.  _That_  train's done left the station."

"Uh-huh," countered Batman. "There are a hundred and forty-one dead people stacked up in the prison morgue who might debate that point if they could."

"I didn't do  _any_  of that on purpose! I was a popsicle, for gods' sake!"

"A popsicle that demolished a prison, released a bevy of super-villains, caused the deaths of …"

"But she's  _right!"_  Raven insisted, "I was just talking to Mr. Starr about it before you …"

"I know all about that," said Wonder Woman, giving Batman a threatening look.

Jinx and Raven focused on her. "You do?"

"Absolutely. There is plenty of precedent from Amazon history." She snickered. "What some of you refer to as mythology."

"Really?"

"Look," said Superman, "we have a great deal to talk about. It will probably take quite a while, and none of us had any supper."

"And we haven't had anything to eat in better than a day!" put in Jinx.

"All the more reason to have some dinner sent in. We can go over the top items this evening and hash out the finer points tomorrow."

Raven giggled, startling everyone. "I think it'll take longer than that."

Jinx nodded enthusiastically. "Bet on it!"

 


	27. Resolution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (No tale is an island,  
> Entire of itself.  
> Each is a piece of the continuity,  
> A part of the unknown whole.  
> If a chapter be tripped by the copyrights,  
> Fanfiction is the less.  
> As well as if a volume were.  
> As well as if a story of my own  
> Or of my friend's were.  
> Each Titan's tale is intertwined,  
> With DC Comics' sufferance.  
> Therefore, send not to know  
> For whom the Titans roll,  
> They roll not for me.
> 
> -Concolor, with profound apologies to John Donne)

_CHAPTER 27_

…  _Probst Federal Prison …_

The evening's repast, supplied by the prison kitchen, was conducted in a strained silence and quickly dispatched. Without preamble, Superman pushed his plate away and said, "The first thing we need to discuss is where you've been for the last several months."

"And how you got so beefed up," added Cyborg.

"And," put in Robin, "how you got back."

"They are all related," Raven answered. "And before you ask, we weren't prisoners and we didn't escape." She gave Jinx's hand a squeeze and said, "I don't know how much you've found out about what happened when we disappeared, but I can tell you it's been going on for nine hundred thousand years."

"Yeah, we knew that," said Cyborg. "There's this scientist guy who …"

"How about we let them talk for a while first?" interrupted Superman.

Raven sighed. _The tension in this room could be sawed into blocks and stacked._  She cleared her throat, took a quick drink of her tea, and continued, "Okay, this is probably going to sound really … unbelievable … but there is a planet a really, really long way away from here with a really, really old being living on it."

"Being?" That was Superman again. The rest of the JLA seemed content to let him conduct the debriefing for the time being.

"Yeah. Actually, see, her name is K'Naa, and she's twenty-two million years old and …"

" _ **What?"**_

"Yeah. Twenty-two million. That's a long time, I know. I had a hard time getting my brain around it, too."

"Are you  _certain?"_

"Very. We got to know her … um, really well." She and Jinx exchanged a grin. "We spent a good bit of time inside her mind, and …"

Superman held up a hand. "Wait, please. Who,  _exactly_ , is K'Naa?"

"Um … she's the planet."

"… I'm sorry, what?"

"She's the only inhabitant of that planet. She's been there, mostly by herself, for millions of years. But, see, she kind of  _ **is**_  the planet. She covers half of it, and …"

There was that hand again. "I'm trying to assimilate this. So there's a being, the only inhabitant of a planet, and this being …  _covers_  the planet?"

"Just the daylight side. The planet doesn't rotate."

"… Uh … Right. Okay. This … being … K'Naa?"

The girls nodded.

"K'Naa covers half a planet. A very  _small_  planet, I assume?"

"Nope. By my reckoning it's about two and a half or three times Earth's diameter, but it's very short on heavy elements, so the gravity's actually a bit lighter."

He stared at her for a moment. "Raven, you must realize that this story sounds … fanciful."

She gave him a shrug. "I can't help how it sounds. That's the way it is."

"Very well." He considered that statement briefly and returned her shrug. "Let's go with that. So K'Naa is this really huge organism and … hold on … how did it get the technology to generate the warp anomaly?"

"She didn't. She makes them with her mind."

J'onn's fist  _thunked_  the table. "I beg your pardon? That is not possible!"

Jinx jumped in. "Oh, it's not only possible, Mr. Martian Man, she trained  _us_  how to do it, too!"

To a member, the Justice Leaguers sat up and leaned back in their chairs. The other Titans stared at her in shock. Finally Superman said, " _You_ can create the warp anomaly?"

"We sure can!" said Jinx, with a touch of pride. "How d'ya think we got back here?"

"Yes, you see," continued Raven, "that's what K'Naa has been trying to do all along! Every one of her attempts to contact the rest of the civilizations in the galaxy met with failure until she got us." She leaned over and appropriated Jinx's arm. "And if my little Cotton Candy Treat here hadn't been scooped up along with me, I'd have been there for the rest of my life."

The level of confusion in the room rose to heights that crowded in on Raven's mind and demanded correction. She explained, "The short version is that Jinx's power complemented mine. K'Naa was able to realign our spirits so that we were in sync with hers. At that point she …"

Wonder Woman broke in, "Excuse me, 'realign your spirits'? What does that mean?"

"Well, think about it. She wanted to train us to handle the warp. But we were very, very different in mind and physical form. She had to 'tweak' our spirits so that using the warp wouldn't kill us."

"… And how did this 'tweaking' come about?"

"Um … okay, well, we'd have to build up a good load of love energy and …"

"Load of  _what?"_  exclaimed Cyborg.

Batman stepped in. "Why don't we table that question for later? This is getting too technical and we only wanted to hit the highlights tonight, remember?"

The rest of the heroes looked at each other. There was a general round of nods and shrugs. Batman said, "Go on."

"She was able to show us how to cast an energy-collecting web to power the warp, and then taught us to create the field itself."

"Yep," added Jinx, "and we were able to collect the same amount of energy in just a few hours as it took her a hundred  _years_  to get! See, her web was restricted to the planet, but ours was  _ **lots**_  bigger!"

"What, pray tell, is an energy-collecting web?" Asked J'onn.

Raven gave Jinx a sidelong grin. "Want to show 'em?"

Jinx returned the smile with change. "Suits me!" And the air around her flushed pink. Raven's soul-self exuded several misty threads and approached the hex energy matrix, quickly blending and converting it to its optimal, blinding-white form. It snapped out to the walls, then through them and outside. Jinx asked, "Around clockwise a little?"

"Yep. Though our sun sure is a lot weaker than hers."

"Got that right. It would take  _days_  to …"

"Raven? Jinx? Could you … damp that down?" The others in the room, Raven noted with some disquiet, had their eyes closed and their hands covering their faces. She and Jinx had no trouble looking directly at the web.

"Yeah, okay. Sorry." The web retracted until it was just an energy pattern hanging in the air between the girls. "Anyway, this is what it looks like. When we want to collect enough energy for a jump, though, it has to be really big. Millions of klicks across."

Superman stared at them. "… Millions."

"Uh-huh." They batted the web back and forth between them for a few more seconds and sucked it back in. "It's really efficient, too. And as you can see it worked just fine. We  _did_  make it back to Earth."

"But this makes no sense!" objected Wonder Woman. "Why bother to take people with this … this  _warp field_ , if they had no chance of getting back?"

Jinx hooted a laugh and pointed at the Amazon. "That is  _ **exactly**_  the same thing I said!"

"She had to try, you see," answered Raven. "She's been witnessing the goings-on in the galaxy for twenty million years. She's seen countless civilizations spring up and grow and die away, and she …"

"How do you mean, this planet-person has 'seen' them?" asked Starfire. Her question seemed to surprise the others. She had been silent up to that point. "You said that this K'Naa person had been alone, so how could it be?"

Raven gave her friend a gentle smile. "Mentally. Her psionic scope includes half the galaxy. She can hear what  _we_  are saying  _ **now**_ , if she focuses hard enough. Come to think of it, she probably is."

"… What, right now?" objected Cyborg, "from thousands of parsecs away?"

"You'll understand, once you meet her."

"Meet her?" Superman said with a heavy dose of incredulity. "What are you talking about?"

"I told you! That was the whole point! Look, she's got the collected wisdom of millions of civilizations. Her mind is vast. She never forgets anything. Ever. And she wants to share. She has been  _longing_  to share what she knows since before anyone on  _this_  planet had opposable thumbs!"

The others sat around the table in silence. Finally the Flash said, "So all this fuss is over …  _philosophy?_   You're  _joking!"_

Wonder Woman, with rather more venom than Raven would have expected of her, said, "Can it, Wally! Philosophy is what  _defines_  a civilization. You ignore it at your peril." Turning to the girls, she said, "Are you dead sure about all of this?"

"As sure as I've ever been of anything in my life," responded Raven. Jinx nodded vigorously.

Robin pondered, "So … K'Naa  _wants_  visitors."

"Right."

"And  _nobody_  has been to her planet in the twenty-two million years she's been there? That doesn't seem plausible."

"No, see, K'Naa orbits a huge blue-white star. She's so far away from it that it's no more than a pinpoint. From what I understand of astronomy, stars that big and hot aren't even supposed to  _have_  planets, so nobody would look for one around it in the first place. Also, there's lots of dark matter in that area of the galaxy, and her star can't even be  _seen_  from thirty parsecs away, and it's farther than that to the next nearest star."

Superman and J'onn gave each other a significant look. "She is correct," said the Martian. "Such a planet would very likely go unnoticed, even if one were looking for it."

"And she's got so much love! She wants to show us all – every civilization that's willing to try – how to love. How to … well, her term was 'strive'. That was really important to her. She mentioned it a lot, how the saddest thing she would ever witness was an apathetic civilization that just sat around and wasted its potential. She'd really get exercised about it. And she wants to show  _us_  how to maximize our potential."

Superman pursed his lips and thought that over. "Uh-huh. Well, she certainly seems to have maximized  _your_  potential."

"Yes. I think I'd agree with that."

"So …  _what_ ," asked the Flash, "does she want in return?"

"In return for what?"

"Sharing all this … wisdom stuff. Surely she must want  _something_."

"Yeah, she does," piped up Jinx. "She wants to  _not_  be freakin'  _alone_  any more. She spent millions of years by herself, watching the rest of the galaxy live and grow and fight and love and die, and she wants to be a  _part_  of it. She's been  _trying_  to join us for close on to a million years now. She wants for people to come and visit, and stay to learn, and carry it back to their own people. She wants to make a  _difference_." Leaning forward and drilling them all with a keen eye, she emphasized, "This is an intelligence unlike anything you have ever known. Unlike anything you could imagine. I had never – and I mean  _never_  – known what it was like to be loved until I met K'Naa." She took Raven's hand. "I have love now. It's the greatest gift she could possibly have given me. And there is nothing in this life or the next that I'd trade for it."

"You're glowing," observed Wonder Woman. "Is that significant?"

Jinx looked down at herself and smiled, noting the muted, pink radiance. "Just means I'm happy," answered the metahuman.

"It's too bad," said Batman with the ghost of a scowl, "that you couldn't have been  _happy_  when you first got here."

Jinx held his gaze. It looked as if something had just crossed her mind that she hadn't considered before. "Well, since I fixed all the property damage, you must be talking about the dead guys, right?"

He nodded, once.

"How many did you say? A hundred and forty?"

"One forty one."

"And how many of those were guards?"

"Five. And three others were staff members."

"So the other … hundred and thirty-three were all inmates?"

"Yes. What of it?"

She looked over at Raven. "Remember the bird?"

Raven got a very cautious look on her face. "Please tell me you aren't considering …"

"Okay, I won't tell you." And she vanished in a streak of pink.

"Hey!" Wally West jumped to his feet. "How'd she do that? I didn't even see her leave!"

Those still in the room looked at each other and then at Raven, who just shrugged again. "As you pointed out, K'Naa maximized our potential."

"Where did she go?"

Raven's eyes unfocused for a second, then she shook her head and gave them a wry grin. "Somewhere that she needs me. I'll be back in a bit." And she vanished.

####

…  _the Probst Prison morgue …_

It hadn't been even two hours since order was fully restored. Prison authorities were still trying to get in touch with all the next-of-kin. In the morgue, the county coroner and his staff went about the distasteful but necessary tasks that would be occupying them through the night. Death requires a lot of paperwork.

Raven popped in beside Jinx, who was staring down at the body of the first guard to die in the late unpleasantness. "Jinx … um …"

"What are the odds?"

"Sorry?"

"Seriously. What are the odds that the docs made a mistake?" She waved at the name tag on his uniform. "This guy's name is Harvey Wahl. Can you just imagine all the jokes he had tossed at him growin' up? His nickname's probably 'Banger'. An' he ain't  _that_  much older than we are. Mid-to-late-twenties, I'd say. If he was t' die, I bet it'd tear his folks right out of the frame."

Raven, having a good notion of what Jinx was up to, narrowed her eyes and said, "Not even  _you_  can raise the dead, Jinx. You have no  _idea_  how much trouble that would cause."

"Nah. Wasn't thinking about that at all."

"Then what …"

"I mean, what are the odds that he didn't really die?" Pink crackles began racing around over the still form. "See, he's been shot, but just  _maybe_ the bullets missed all his vital organs." Two of the wounds shifted position slightly. The air around the girls and the guard grew hazy and distorted.

Raven nodded. "I think I am beginning to understand. As you say, what are the chances? It  _could_  happen, couldn't it?"

"Exactly. And maybe he  _didn't_  really bleed out. Maybe the bullet missed the artery, and he just lost consciousness from the shock, and maybe the coroner's people  _missed_  it." The bloodstains on his shirt diminished somewhat.

"Of course. I can see that. With so many people around who really  _are_  dead, and with them being under tight time constraints, mistakes are bound to be made."

"Too true. I mean, really, more far-fetched things have happened, right?" The pink energy bathed Harvey Wahl, lifting his hair, making subtle alterations here and there. "What are the odds, you know?"

The guard made a small, rasping sound. Jinx gripped Raven's arm. "He's not really dead, Rae! He never was, he's just critically wounded. You can _heal_  him now!"

The empath's hands shot out toward the man; misty darkness encased him. After about fifteen seconds, his eyes opened, he drew a ragged breath, and tried to sit up. She laid her hands on him, giving Jinx a look that spoke volumes, and said, "Whoa, there, Mr. Wahl, take it easy. You've had a hard day."

####

…  _later that evening …_

Flash, pacing back and forth across the length of the meeting room about twice each second, voiced what the rest of the Justice Leaguers were thinking. "This shit is off the hook, man."

Standing in a corner, lost in thought, Superman studiously ignored the comment. J'onn J'onzz, however, found himself in agreement. "It would seem that, strictly speaking, neither of them can be categorized as 'human' any longer."

"Raven never was, strictly speaking," observed Batman.

Wally West stopped his pacing and glanced around the room. "Hey, where'd Diana go?"

Batman gave a short, humorless laugh. "She went to talk with Hera."

"… Hera?"

"One of the patrons of the Amazons? You know, Zeus's wife? Goddess of hearth and home and faithfulness in marriage?"

Wally blinked a few times and heaved a sigh. "Oooookay. Messin' around with gods now. Calling in the big guns, huh?"

"I think," offered Superman, "that she's just going for some advice. We have a unique situation here."

"Yeah. They raised eight people from the dead. You might say it's been awhile since that last happened."

"You might, if you wanted to indulge in a bit of sarcasm."

Wally shrugged. "Can't hurt."

Superman walked over to the table and leaned his fists on it. "This is … ticklish. The girls don't appear to have any ill will towards anyone. They've gone out of their way, so far, to be helpful and enlightening. But the fact remains that they could, if they wanted to, lay waste to the planet. And there wouldn't be anything constructive we could do to stop them."

J'onn said, "I, for one, would very much like to meet this K'Naa."

The others nodded. "That needs to be done as soon as we can arrange it."

Thirteen thousand parsecs away, a planetary intelligence shouted a paean of joy at the prospect.  _At last! At long, long last!_

####

…  _Titans' Tower …_

Since the Titans had been using the Watchtower's transports, they gratefully accepted Raven's offer to teleport them back to their home. All three of them were mortally tired; they'd had spotty sleep and high stress levels for a very long time; and the emotional release of getting Raven back – with Jinx in tow, no less – gave them all permission to crash. This they did, piling onto the big sofa. Starfire curled up beside Robin, tucked her head into the crook of his arm, and closed her eyes with a sigh.

Jinx and Raven, holding hands, floated around to face them. The psion said, "Hey, I've been meaning to ask. Where are Terra and Gar? They out patrolling, holding down the fort, crime-wise?"

Richard and Victor looked at each other. Starfire's eyes popped open to stare at Raven. She sat up and said, "That is right! You do not know of Beast Boy's madness or Terra's wound!"

"Wha …? Wound?  _Madness?_   How the …"

"Our dear little friend Terra was injured while … dealing w-with Gar. She was poisoned, and the doctors were forced to re-" she had to swallow, and wiped at her eyes, "remove her hand. She is in the Watchtower infirmary under …"

Raven vanished.

Jinx, after gazing for a moment at the space her lover had just occupied, said, "What about the Green Bean? He went nuts?"

"Yeah," answered Victor. "Kind of … catastrophically. He, ah, got obsessed with finding out where Raven went, and that – over time – changed into a total vigilante vendetta against organized crime."

"That pussycat? A  _vigilante?"_

"I know. Hard to take, right? But true. He went after some of the biggest crime syndicates in the country. And he took no prisoners. Rob's best estimates put his death toll at close to five hundred."

"Dam … nation." She stared off through the big window. The moon painted a thousand images of itself on the ocean's ripples below. Turning back to the group, she said to Robin, "I can't see  _you_  going along with any of that."

"No."

"So he went solo."

"Yes."

"Shit."

"Again, yes."

"Man, that sucks! You guys got your asses handed to ya, roster-wise."

"And thank you  _so much_  for pointing that out. It had gone  _completely_  unnoticed."

She bit her lip, took the two steps between them, knelt, and took Robin's hand. He looked shocked at the contact. "I'm sorry. That was stupid and thoughtless … and totally in character."

His mouth worked a couple of times before he managed, "Uh … thanks? That was … brutally honest."

"Hanging around Rae will do that for a body."

Starfire leaned over and placed her hand on theirs. "Is it indeed true that you are now Raven's love?"

"In this world, and in any others there might be."

The three were somewhat taken aback by the raw, unadulterated resolve in her voice and face. That was decidedly  _not_  in character for the Jinx they all knew. Victor said, "You really  _have_  changed."

"More than I think you can understand."

Robin asked, "Did Raven … teleport up to the Watchtower?"

"She did. She's gonna heal Terra."

He shook his head. "But … she was hit with magic poison. Wonder Woman said that it would take a demon to …" His eyes widened.

Jinx cracked a grin. "You were saying?"

"Holy sh- cow! She's part demon!"

"Yep. If that's what it takes, I don't think you have too much to …"

Raven popped into the room in front of the big window, and turned to them. "Okay. Terra's in her room. She needed some clothes, and didn't care for basic black."

Starfire jumped up, her hair floating gleefully around her. "Terra is  _here?"_

"Yeah. She's a little …" Starfire tore out of the room like a whirlwind. "Heh … a little pissed at herself for getting in the way of that stinger." Giving a wry chuckle, Raven said, "Now  _that_  was some interesting poison! I'll have to go see if Gar will let me have a sample."

"He might," noted Robin, "let you have it in the throat. He's completely unhinged."

"Yes, well, we'll see about that, too. Where is he?"

"Near the JLA Moonbase. They set up a prison habitat for him. As of earlier today he was still stuck in the manticore form."

She caught Jinx's eye. "You up for a little excursion?"

The pink-haired girl bounded over the bank of controls and into her lover's arms. "I thought you'd never ask!"

"Cool. All right, we'll see you guys later, 'k?" And they winked out.

Terra chose that moment to come dancing into the great room, Starfire floating around her in tight circles and grinning madly. "Guys! Hey! Look!" She waggled her fingers at them.

The boys jumped up and ran over. Victor tossed her up in the air, caught her, and gave her a huge hug. "Little Bit! You're cured!"

"Am I ever! Ain't Raven somethin'?"

"Oh, kid, you don't know that half of it. Have a seat and we'll get you up to speed."

 


	28. Interviews

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (As far as I can tell, the Titans are copyright themselves, and just sort of loan their images out to DC on a regular basis. I certainly didn't have anything to do with their creation. And I sure as HECK don't make any money off of them. -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 28_

…  _Titans' Tower …_

Robin stared hard at the man seated across from him in the smaller conference room. "You're from the  _NSA?_   What does the NSA want to interview  _ **us**_  for …" he glanced at the man's credentials, "… Agent Maddox? We're under the jurisdiction of the Justice League."

"While that is true, Robin, certain … recent events have come to our attention. We are charged with keeping the national security intact. We simply want to know that your organization is of the same mind."

Robin considered the agent, his finger stroking along the underside of his chin in thought. "Well, never let it be said that the Teen Titans aren't team players when it comes to national security." He had to smirk a little. "Though what you could be worrying about is unclear to me. Perhaps you'd like to elaborate?"

"You are familiar with the events that occurred at Probst Prison on Tuesday?"

"Of course."

"Then what elaboration is necessary?"

"Humor me."

The agent's brows drew together. "Have it your way." He uncrossed his legs and leaned on the table, closing the distance between them somewhat. "Right now, in this city, there are two individuals whose power levels are not fully known, but are assumed to be at least on a par with Superman. One of them is a documented criminal. The other has a demonic lineage. We need to know what is being done to assure that they are being sufficiently monitored."

"… Monitored?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"We need to be sure they aren't collaborating with enemy governments."

Robin smothered a chortle as best he could, but his reaction nevertheless brought a scowl to Agent Maddox's face. "Robin, I really need for you to take this seriously."

Robin waved a hand. "Yeah, sure. Go ahead and do your interviews." He chuckled deep in his chest. "Seriously. You want us to take this seriously. Heh. Frankly, Agent Maddox, they have bigger fish to fry. They're dealing … hah, we're  _all_  dealing with an interplanetary situation on so vast a scale that we aren't even  _considering_  anything except humanity as a whole. But sure. Knock yourself out." He got to his feet and went to the door. "I'll go get Starfire for you. I know where she is, and she'll be a good one to start with."

####

…  _Starfire's side of her interview …_

Thank you for asking, Mr. Maddox, this day I am feeling  _very_  much improved. We have all been suffering great stress for many weeks now, but Richard and I did the mating last night for the first time in days, and I believe he is feeling much better as well … though, for some reason, he did not arise early this morning, as he usually does, for combat practice. We only mated for three or four hours, and he was quite vocal, so we may not have done it enough. Perhaps I should go make love to him again when we finish our interview.

Are you feeling well, Mr. Maddox? You seem flushed. Shall I adjust the temperature of the room? No? Very well. Dear Robin said you had questions for me.

Oh, no, I do not worry about them at  _all!_  But it is so  _marvelous_  to have our friends back! We missed Raven  _so much_ , and worried about her so _badly!_  And Terra was so  _very_  gravely injured that we feared she would die, but now she is better than ever. And now Jinx has joined us as a friend as well and she and Raven are  _lovers!_  Is that not very exciting? I so hoped for years that Raven would meet someone who would make her feel love, and now she has! Do you have many friends, Mr. Maddox? No? That is sad, you should find some. Oh,  _I know! I know!_  You can be  _my_ friend! We can get Terra and Cyborg and go to the mall of shopping and you can pick out some new clothes!

Oh, well, then, maybe you can pick out some new suits! Robin has  _many_  suits and other types of clothing that he does not wear very much because he wears his uniform most of the time during the day because we always have to be ready to drop what we are doing with  _no_  warning _at all_  and run into the city to fight some criminal gang or super-villain because there are  _many_  museums and banks and other sorts of financial institutions that Robin likes to call 'high value targets' because there are so many things of monetary significance in them and …

I beg your pardon? Safe? What do you mean? Is Raven safe from what?

Oh, you mean is she safe for  _others_  to be around her! I see. Well, that would depend I suppose on whom the others were. The H.I.V.E. Five were not very safe at all when they were around her. She would, as Cyborg likes to say, hand them their asses. She was very powerful, and could use her soul-self to do many, many things, and now she is  _ever_  so very much stronger than she was before she met that K'Naa person. She can …

Did Robin not tell you about K'Naa?

Well, then, I will! She is an intelligence of planetary size about thirteen thousand parsecs from here, and is very old. She used a warp field to catch Raven because she was lonely and had been trying to contact other civilizations in the galaxy for nine hundred thousand years, and she chose Raven because of her dual heritage as a human and the daughter of a demon and that meant that Raven's mind was special so that K'Naa could …

Oh, that's fine, then, if you do not need to know about that. She explained it all to us, and it was most fascinating, but if you would rather …

Why, no. Jinx is with the Titans now. She is so much more friendly than she was when she was leading the H.I.V.E. Five. But now she is no longer a villain because she is Raven's lover! Is that not exciting?

Oh, yes, I suppose I did say that already. But it really is a most wonderful thing!

No, Mr. Maddox, I am not trying to do any evading of questions. But Jinx has changed, and is not …

Because Raven  _says_  she has changed, and Raven is an empath of  _great_  power. There is no way that anyone could fool her, and she has been in Jinx's mind many, many times.

Why, yes, I  _would_  trust Raven with my life. I have done so more times than I can count.

No, I do not know all the details of why the prison employees were thought to be dead. I know they are alive now because Raven healed them and kept them from dying.

Then perhaps Jinx aided her with her own power. It is quite considerable now, I understand. She learned much from K'Naa.

Yes, certainly! You may return to ask more questions whenever you desire, and I shall be most pleased to answer them for you. Perhaps when you ask Raven your questions, she can give you the full story of K'Naa and how they all made love.

No, you see, K'Naa made an avatar that was human because she needed to be able to generate her own love energy for spiritual transforma…

Ah. Very well. Thank you, then, and I trust you will have a  _very_  pleasant day! Good bye!

####

…  _Victor Stone's side of his interview …_

Yeah, man, Rob said you wanted to ask some questions. So what's up?

Jinx? Nah, Jinx is cool.

'cause I've known her for years, man. Lotta years. Well, goin' on five. When that's a quarter of your life, it seems like a lot.

Fought her, yeah. Lots of times. Worked beside her some, too.

I was on a secret mission for the Titans. Infiltrated the H.I.V.E. school. See, they started off as a mercenary training camp, but then Brother Blood moved in and did away with Madam Rouge. Killed her, I guess. And he had other ideas for how the H.I.V.E. ought to work. Trained 'em in thievery an' murder an' terrorism. Brainwashed 'em. He was a psion. Tried to brainwash me, but my circuitry wouldn't let him. He thought he had me, but he didn't. There was one hellacious motherfucker of a big fight an' it closed down the school, but Blood got away. Last I heard he scatted off to South America somewhere.

Jinx was at the school. We got … close.

Pretty close. She's … really somethin'.

None of your god – damned – business.

Fine. Ask away.

Yeah, she's with Raven now. Very happy, by all accounts.

I'm pretty sure she's bi and always has been. Why do you need to know?

No, we didn't know anything about Raven's preferences. She never had a relationship before.

Jinx loves her and she loves Jinx. What else is there to understand?

Yeah, I've seen some of what Pinky can do, and she's told us a lot more. You know she can transform elements?

True dope, man. Straight shit alchemy. Turns gravel into diamonds, an' scrap iron into gold.

No, I  _don't_  know how much she's made. Here, I think I've got one on me somewhere … yeah, here ya go. That's a pigeon's blood ruby.

I dunno, eight, maybe ten carats. Prob'ly worth around forty grand.

Yeah, she made it to show us she could, and gave it to me.

No, I don't know how she does it. I don't know how Kori throws those starbolts of hers, or how Terra makes rocks and dirt move either.

Look, man, even when she was part of the H.I.V.E. she was good people. We looked out for each other.

A spy? You gotta be shittin' me.

Man, I don't know what you been smokin', but I bet you can get a good price for it on the street. You are  _seriously_  barkin' up the wrong tree.

Suit yourself. I told you what I know. But let me just give you a little piece of advice: don't take that line of questioning with Raven.

'cause, man, you didn't see her when she thought Jinx was being held somewhere. If you like your internal organs where they are now, don't go bad-mouthin' Jinx in front of Raven.

Yeah, not if I see you first. Prick.

####

…  _Terra's side of her interview …_

Hey. Robin said you wanted to ask me some questions about Jinx.

Huh. I don't know how much help I can be. Didn't really know her. We fought several times. She's good. Throws a mean hex.

Raven? Oh, Raven's my best friend, like, ever. You know she healed me? Grew my hand back and everything. See?

A danger to who? Us? Heck, no. You have any idea how many times she's saved our lives?

Oh, he told you about the quarry? That sucked.

Yeah, I did. Heck, I thought about killing myself  _a lot!_  Got real depressed when she disappeared, like it was all my fault and my life was Officially Over. Turns out I've got chronic disthymic depression. Have had for a long time accordin' to the docs.

You ever been depressed?

No, that's not what I mean. It's like … okay, you've been beat bloody, and you're exhausted. You're hanging onto the edge of this pit by your fingernails. It's pitch black dark, blowin' cold, and raining. You're trying to keep yourself from falling into the pit, but the sides are hard and cold and slippery, and you can't get a grip, and you're sliding down the side, and there's something really awful waiting on you at the bottom of the pit, but you can't see it … and that's your life. Every hour of every day. And it will never, ever get any better.

You're right. It  _ **is**_  horrible. Why do you think depressed people kill themselves? When death is preferable to an existence like that …

Yeah, it's bein' treated. I take Cymbalta and Welbutrin and Abilify.

I dunno. That's what the docs prescribed, and it works. I feel great now, most of the time, and  _ **never**_  as bad as I used to feel.

Could Jinx be a  _spy?_  That's a funny question. Heh. She'd probably get a kick out of it, the action and stuff, I mean, and getting to play tricks on the bad guys. Yeah, I think she'd make a cool spy. Why'd'ya ask, you want her to come work for you?

Oh! Aw,  _ **heck**_ , no! She'd never work for the Reds.

No, it's not that, I just think she's too much of a free spirit. That whole closed-society-government-controlled-everything shtick just ain't her. I'm sure she'd be happy to  _fight_  'em, if you wanted her to.

Well, you're welcome to your opinions. I think that's crazy talk, though. You need to ask her yourself. Then you'll see.

Okay. See ya.

####

…  _Jinx's side of her interview …_

Hey. What's doin'?

Yeah, sure. Fire away.

Okay. Well, that's kinda complicated.

Ha! You wanna know what  _truly_  sucks major wang? Do you? Well, I'll tell you: getting a conscience. If you didn't have one to begin with, or if the one you had was under-nourished and anemic, like mine, and then all of a sudden you get bothered by crap you did that never really bothered you before, it can totally blow your sleep patterns to hell and gone.

I'm serious.

See, here's the thing. Word got around town pretty damn quick about what went down at the prison, and best I can tell it might have gotten blown a  _teensy_  bit out of proportion.

Well, okay, there  _was_  that two-minute video piece Channel 3 did on me when I was putting the prison back together.

Oh, you saw that? That why you're here?

Heh. I'll have to admit, they made me look pretty freakin' impressive. But still.

So, anyway, some of the shit we've been discussing with the Titans – who really ain't that bad once you get to know 'em, specially Starfire, she's all hyped up to take me shopping and do my hair – set my gears to humming and dredged up all kinds of stuff that I did … you know, back when.

Yeah, villainy stuff. An' it's hell to live with, eatin' at you 24/7, always there in the background like a sore tooth. So I showed up down at the precinct station in my old stomping grounds yesterday morning, and it kinda created a stir. Couple of 'em went to draw down on me, an' some of the others got 'em to stop.

'cause they knew it wouldn't do any good, that's why. I'm kinda-sorta bullet-proof now.

Oh, I don't know about invulnerable. I'm not in Superman's league, if that's what you mean. Just … really tough. Here, feel my hand.

Yeah, I've heard that a few times. Let's just say I'm not scared of Starfire's hugs anymore.

Right, the precinct house. See, I've picked up a good bit of Rae's empathic stuff over the last few months, so I could tell they were all scared shitless. Heh, not that it would take a mind reader to know that; the smell of fear was just about overpowering.

Nah, they were cool. Eventually. I put my hands up, said, "I come in peace. Don't want trouble, just wanna talk to the Captain," and waited while they calmed down and got sorta-kinda organized. Couple minutes later I was in with Captain Butler, and we had us a little chat.

No, I wanted my rap sheet, see, because I … okay, you remember that conscience thing I told you about? Yeah, well, I knew I'd stolen a lot of stuff. Money and artsy-fartsy crap, shit like that. And I figured, you know, after what Rae told me about how my gang coulda been mercs instead of thieves, all that loot was … well … pretty pointless. So I figured I ought to pay it all back, but I couldn't remember who all I'd robbed. That's why I needed my rap sheet.

No, it went great. Sort of. I explained that to the Captain, and he looked at me like I'd grown another head. I could tell he wanted to ask me something  _real bad_ , and told him just to spit it out. So he finally asks if I'm thinking about paying reparations.

Well, yeah. That's kinda the point, you know?

Oh, sure. He wants to know where I'm gonna get the money to do that, since my gang stole, like a million dollars (not that we managed to keep much of it) and did millions more in damage that would …

Not a problem. The damage I can fix myself, if they haven't already. I looked around his office, and spotted a little jar full of sand. Turns out his grandkid made it for him. S'posed to be a picture, a landscape made from how the sand was laid in, but little kids don't know how to carry something without shaking it so the picture wasn't so much. I asked if he'd mind if I used it for a demonstration an' he said 'No' so I flicked it over to me with little touch of hex energy, an' he just about wet his pants.

Yeah, like this.

God, man, settle down. You're as bad as him.

So I told him to chill. I've gone straight, using my awesome powers for all the good and right and proper shit now, and blah-blah-blah. Don't think he really bought it. Anyhow, I opened the jar and stuck my finger into the sand and concentrated, and there was a good, big flash of pink, and about five seconds later I handed him a sapphire as big as the end of his pinky.

Ha! Yeah, you could say that. He couldn't think of anything to say right off, so I told him it was real, it was permanent, and he could probably sell it for around thirty grand. Told him I could do that whenever I wanted to, and that if my former victims would rather have gold or platinum or rhodium, that wasn't a problem either. I just needed the full list.

Got  _that_  right. It was a hell of a list. We'd been busy. I didn't remember even half of the places on the list, and I thought, oh, well. Gonna be a busy few days for Jinxy-cat this week, looks like.

Of course I'm serious about the gems. Here, lemme see your pen.

Great day, man, you're as nervous as a turkey at Thanksgiving. It's just a little flash of light. Chill. And, here, take your pen back.

Of course it's heavier. It's platinum now.

You're welcome.

Yeah, I started on the list yesterday. Knocked out eight of 'em, and five more this morning. I just dropped by here for some lunch, and Robbie said you were here and I ought to come see you.

Well … that's an interesting question. We really don't know, exactly, where we'll go. Back to visit K'Naa, for sure, and likely real soon.

Yeah, she got it right, thirteen thousand parsecs.

I guess that'd be, oh, somewhere around forty thousand light years. Nearly halfway across the galaxy.

I dunno. You talkin' about takin' the trip in a conventional ship? Ion drive and shit? I'd give it sixty, maybe seventy thousand years; long enough that your dinner would get cold. That's why all the space-faring races use FTL.

They don't let you guys out much, do they? Means 'faster than light'.

Well,  _excuuuuse_  me! You're the one what brought it up. I'm just sayin' how they do it.

We teleported. Used a warp field.

Yes, like the starships use. Only we can make it up in our heads, so to speak. K'Naa showed us how.

She's a really old being that is the only life form on her planet. Got a mind like you wouldn't believe, gotta be a hundred billion times as complex as ours. She covers the day-side of the planet.

Dangerous? K'Naa? Heh. Only to ignorance.

Yeah, we do want to go back. The only reason we returned to Earth was to tell everybody about her. Truth to tell, I'm a lot more comfortable on K'Naa than I am on Earth right now.

Well for one thing we didn't have to wear any clothes. Didn't  _have_  any to  _wear_.

Yeah, you like my ensemble? It's hex energy, solidified.

'cause it fits, and it don't chafe like spandex.

Okay, let me cut to the chase. I'm not working for any foreign governments. I don't have any reason to. They don't have anything I need, and I don't feel like putting my friends – or the rest of my country – in danger. In fact, if it came down to it, I'd stop any other nation that tried to kick our shit.

Yeah, I could. Just trust me on this.

Hey, you want her side of the story, ask Raven. I'm not her mouthpiece.

Great. Well, I gotta go. Freedom Bank down on Franklin Street is next on my list, and I understand they've had problems with a leaky roof ever since we tried to rob 'em last year.

Yeah, you tell her that. Toodles.

####

…  _somewhat later …_

Raven frowned at the Titans' leader. "Who is this guy again?"

"He's an agent with the NSA. He's here to find out if you and Jinx are 'safe' to have around."

"… Safe."

"Don't shoot the messenger. I told him he was full of crap, but I guess he's got a job to do, and he's a conscientious little bureaucrat. He wants to ask you some questions."

"And he's already interviewed the others?"

"Yep. I think Jinx scared him, but she wasn't trying to. He's just … he seems nervous around metas."

"Then they should have sent someone else."

"Maybe they didn't  _have_  anyone else."

She mulled it over and shrugged. "Yeah, okay. But you come, too."

"You need me there? What for?"

"To warn him off of topics that will get him killed, and to calm me down if he won't be warned off."

"Right. Good idea."

They were shortly seated in the conference room. Raven felt around the edges of Mr. Maddox's mind and determined that, sure enough, he was exceedingly nervous in her presence. She stared at him calmly for several long moments while he fidgeted, and finally said, "You requested the interview, Mr. Maddox. I am here. Ask your questions."

"Thank you, ah, Raven. We are, ah, primarily interested in your, ah, intentions as pertains to national security."

"I have no interest in that."

"You don't care if your country is threatened by a hostile neighbor?"

"There are vastly larger concerns that occupy my attention at present, Mr. Maddox. The petty squabbling of self-important political creatures is of complete disinterest to me."

"So if a foreign national approached you and offered you something of value for your services, you wouldn't be interested? At all?"

"Something of value? Such as?"

"I don't know. What is of value to you, personally?"

She cracked a smile for the first time in the interview. She did have an image to maintain after all. "I value the friendship of the Titans. I value my relationship with Jinx. I value K'Naa and all she has to offer humanity. Apart from that … my needs are minimal."

"Are you saying you have no need for money? For power?"

"Power? What do  ** _you_**  know of power?"

Robin spoke up, "Mr. Maddox, I think she's been completely honest with you. Maybe we should consider the interview over."

A gentle hand on his arm pulled Robin's attention around to the empath. She gave her head one small shake and said, "We need to clear the air on this issue."

"That's up to you. If you're cool with it, so am I."

Turning her attention back to Agent Maddox, she said, "Jinx demonstrated her mastery over the elements, did she not?"

"… She … turned my pen into platinum."

"Indeed. She was the one who came up with that transformation magic. She taught it to me, but it seems my abilities lie in another direction."

He blinked at her in confusion.

"Let me demonstrate." And suddenly the three of them, along with the conference table and the chairs they sat in, were on the beach in front of the Tower. Agent Maddox jerked violently. Raven said, "My apologies. I should have mentioned we'd be teleporting." He stared at her in fear.

She used a couple of tendrils of soul-self to scoop up a quantity of sand and deposit it on the table. Then she concentrated on the pile, covering it in a misty layer of black. About ten seconds later, the mist vanished, and sitting before them was a perfectly roasted duck, a bowl of poached pears, a crisp salad, some hot buns, and a plate of steamed vegetables; a carafe of wine stood in the center. She looked the NSA man in the eye and asked, "Hungry?"

He stared at the food, then at her, then he swallowed and said, "Not really."

"That's a pity. This is all quite good."

"You know, Raven," remarked Robin, "I never had any lunch myself."

"Help yourself." And the two of them dished up portions of the excellent meal for themselves.

Mr. Maddox, after a minute or so, took one of the buns and munched it. His eyes widened, and the bread quickly disappeared.

Between bites, Raven told him, "You see, Mr. Maddox, when I told you that my needs were minimal, I meant it. Power? What sort of power could anyone offer me that would top what I have now? Money? You've seen what Jinx can do. What do we need with money when she can mint any sort of element or compound to order? We don't need anything else that we don't already have."

He digested that. Then he asked, "All right, given that I accept all this on its face, what  _do_  you want?"

"Is that really the government's business?"

"Miss, ah, Raven, please understand. Any ruling body, whether it be a hereditary king or a democratically-elected conglomerate like we have, carries a bit of paranoia inside. Governments are temporary. We all know that. The NSA likes the nation the way it is, and wants to keep it that way as long as we can. Surely you can appreciate that."

"Certainly." She leaned back in her chair, holding her plate while she negotiated a pear into sections. "And I have no issue with telling you. I just want you to know that I'm doing it because I  _want_  to … because I think it's polite."

"Granted."

"Jinx is currently busy rectifying certain details of her checkered past. As soon as she is finished, we will be preparing to return to K'Naa. I anticipate that we will depart in eight to ten days."

Robin sat forward, his mouth open. "You never said anything about that!"

"Jinx and I talked it over last night."

"But why? You've been gone for six months!"

"Because of Gar."

"… Oh." He seemed to slump in on himself a bit. "Oh. I get it."

Mr. Maddox asked (timidly), "Gar? Who is that?"

"Garfield Logan. Beast Boy. One of the Titans."

His eyes narrowed in thought for a moment, then widened when the memory caught up to him. "He's the one who went insane!"

"Yes."

"But … how is he connected?"

"We tried, the same day we woke up, to cure his insanity. Key word there is 'tried'. We failed. Badly."

"… I still don't understand."

"We will be taking him with us when we return to K'Naa."

"Oh. … Really?" The news didn't do anything for his comprehension. "What for?"

"We can't seem to fix his mind. But we both feel that K'Naa may have a good chance of doing just that. So he's coming along."

"Ah. Well, then, I think our business here is concluded."

The waves of relief coming off him pulled a smile across Raven's face. She said, "That works for me." Then she and Robin vanished.

Agent Maddox looked around for a few seconds and then  _huffed_  in frustration. Then his briefcase appeared on the table in front of him. He opened it, checked the contents, and rose to walk back to his car. But then he stopped, looked at the table, and pulled off a drumstick from the duck. As soon as he did, the table and chairs also vanished. He hurried back to the parking area, gnawing on the duck.

 


	29. Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (In the clearing stands a writer  
> And an author by his trade  
> And he carries the reminders  
> Of each review that laid him down,  
> And all the DC lawyers  
> That want to soil his name.  
> "I am making no infraction!"  
> But the copyright remains,  
> Yes, it still remains …  
> -Concolor, with sound apologies to Paul Simon)

_CHAPTER 29_

…  _Titans' Tower, Raven's room …_

The dark sheets, stained darker still with her cold sweat, twisted around the empath as she wrestled with her dreams.

_. . . . . . . fire and death and smoke and darkness . . . . . . ._

_. . . . . . . darkness everywhere, but most of all there is pain . . . . . . ._

_. . . . . . . inescapable doom clouds the mind . . . . . . ._

_. . . . . . . deep despair for the lost ones, despair and anguish for those who will never know, cries for help that go unanswered . . . . . . ._

_. . . . . . . the cruel laughter of ultimate evil, evil that exists only to delight in the pain of others, evil that will not be quenched . . . . . . ._

_. . . . . . . pain and loss and unbearable, unknowable, unthinkable sadness . . . . . . ._

Through the close link they shared, Jinx picked up the fringes of the dream. She was  _not_  trapped in that world, and with the discomfort rising to a crescendo, she woke with a start and jerked upright in their bed, Rachel's moans falling first on her ears. She reached over and took the smaller girl by the shoulders. "Rae! Rae, wake up!"

The dark head whipped back and forth, her arms flailing ineffectively. Her soul-self began to exude questioning tendrils that lashed around, seeking an enemy.

Seeing this, Jinx called up a matrix of hex energy, pulling the tendrils to her, strengthening the connection she had to her lover's mind. This brought the pain home to her more fully, and in truth it scared her. Where was all this coming from?

"Rae, come on! You have to snap out of it! It's just a dream!" She leaned in, pressing their foreheads together.  _It's just a dream, Rae, fight it! Break free!_

And with a gasp, she did. The purple eyes flew open, finally seeing Jinx. She grabbed onto the girl as if this were their last hour together, sobbing into her shoulder.

"Hey! Hey, it's okay. It's just a dream. You're safe now."

"N-n-no. Not … just a dream." She drew a long, stuttering breath and gazed into Jinx's eyes. "Not just a dream. It's a sending." She scrubbed at her face, trying to get her hammering heart to slow down. "Jinx … we have to go. Something's wrong."

A sudden chill shook the pink-haired girl. "Wrong? You mean … with K'Naa?"

Her answer was barely a whisper. "I'm afraid, Jinx. So much pain. So much …"

Her chin firming up, Jinx sat back and said, "Then the rest of my former victims will just have to wait to get their money back." She glanced over at Rachel's clock on the dresser: the dim, red numbers read '04:48'. "Okay, let's get some breakfast. We've got a collection web to construct."

####

…  _later …_

Starfire blew into the main room like a dervish. "Robin, Robin, look!" Zipping over to the Titans' leader, she shoved a piece of note paper into his hands. "Jinx and Raven are gone!"

"Gone?" He frowned darkly. "Why would they …" Scanning the note, his features soon registered confusion. "What sort of 'emergency' could pull them off-world?"

"I do not know. But Jinx was supposed to meet with Captain of the Police Butler this afternoon. He will not be happy that she is gone."

"No, I suppose not. But it's not like he could do anything about it." He looked at the note again. "What's this about 'passing out the goodies'?"

"Goodies? I do not know. This note was on my door." She floated around until she could read over his shoulder. "Perhaps she is making a reference to Halloween, which will be celebrated this weekend. I did not finish the note, since I thought you should know this as soon as … oh, I see." They looked at each other and took off for Raven's room.

The goodies in question turned out to be a sizable pile of what appeared to be washers and bolts, all made of pure gold. There was another note on top. It read,

_Yo, Traffic Light –_

_if you cud see to it that this gets passed out to the right banks and shit, i'll owe ya one – Jinx_

_p.s. – whatevers left after ya square up ya can keep – get Vic a bigger TV or something_

_p.s.s – tell Vic i'm sorry about raiding his hardware supply – it was the easiest to work with_

Robin looked at the pile, picked up a few of the washers and hefted them, and then whistled. "There must be several million dollars worth of gold here. How am I supposed to …" He saw another piece of paper, folded up and stuck into the pile. Picking it up and opening it, he saw that it was a list of the various institutions she had robbed. About two thirds of them had lines drawn through their names in various colors of pen, crayon, and Sharpie. "Oh. Okay."

"Our new friend has left you a large quantity of work, it would seem."

"Yeah," he replied dryly. "I'll have to thank her next time I see her."

####

…  _the JLA Moonbase …_

"How d'ya want to go about this, Rae?"

"We'll need to curve it, to get maximum exposure. It will have to be significantly larger than the one we used on K'Naa."

"Heard that." She looked over at Green Lantern and J'onn J'onzz, who were feverishly powering up a large set of detection and recording equipment. The girls had offered them the chance to study the collection web and the formation of the warp field in return for the JLA's permission to use the Moonbase as a jumping-off point. "You guys ready yet?"

"Almost," replied the Martian. "And let me take this opportunity to thank you for your cooperation."

"No prob. But we need to get going. There's something bad wrong with K'Naa and we need to get there  _ **now**_."

Only a couple more minutes slipped by before Hal Jordan gave them the thumbs-up. A bubble of Raven's soul-self surrounded the two girls and they floated over to the wall and out into the hard vacuum of the Moon. Stopping directly over Garfield Logan's habitat, they paused while Rachel reached down to her teammate's mind.

Their earlier attempts to repair the damage to his psyche had gone seriously, murderously awry. As Raven had deduced, he was not  _ **stuck**_  in his manticore form … he simply preferred to stay that way now. And he promised a quick and grisly death to anyone who got within range of his claws or stinger. In what currently passed for logic in his sick and twisted intellect, he blamed Raven for everything that had gone wrong in his life. She was supposed to be  _dead!_  He was supposed to be her  _avenger!_  That she had lived didn't fit in anywhere in his scenario. Her continued existence was, therefore, simply wrong and would have to be rectified.

_Gar, we are going to take you with us to see K'Naa now._

_**Come closer, and I will make sure you never see anything again.** _

She sighed inwardly, squeezed Jinx's hand, and broke the connection. "Okay, let's go."

"Do we  _really_  have to take him?"

"We do."

"But you still can't tell me why."

"… No." Her gaze grew distant. "But I know he needs to be with us."

Jinx blew a heartfelt sigh. "Okay. If you say so. Seems awful risk-ish, though."

In the Moonbase, J'onn watched the readouts, giving a small start when the web first formed. "Hal, I do not know if our instruments are going to be up to this."

"It's the best we have. We'll get what we can until they overload."

That turned out to be rather a longer time than either of them feared. After the initial energy of formation, the web rapidly grew in size without putting off appreciably more radiation. After all, it was meant to  _collect_  energy, not give it  _off_.

That would come later.

The web grew, and the girls could feel it charging. They didn't have a core to work with, as K'Naa had. She'd built it, tweaked it, perfected it for millions of years. Jinx and Rachel would simply have to make the web big enough and robust enough to hold all the energy they would need by itself.

At a diameter of around ten million kilometers, they began to curve the outer edges toward Sol.

At the end of forty minutes the web subtended a spherical arc of fifty-five million kilometers. Half an hour later it had doubled that, and was collecting fully a third of the sun's output.

"That feel about right to you?" Jinx asked.

"Maybe. Let's let it charge up a while longer. We  _are_  pulling Gar with us."

"Yeah. About that. What happens when we get there and the trip zonks us out? If he wakes up first, it could get  _real_  ugly  _real_  fast."

"I'm going to see to it that you  _ **don't**_  'zonk out'."

"… Can you do that?"

"I think so."

"But not both of us?"

"I'm much  _less_  sure of that. I'm going to transfer a portion of your stress to me, and siphon some of my reserves off to you. Also, that's another reason we both ate so much first. You remember how hungry we were the first two times?"

"Oh, sure." She got a knowing light in her eyes. "Ah-ha! We start off with more energy reserves, and you swap some of my stress for me, and I might just hang on to consciousness."

"Also, I'm going to try to load Gar up with as much of the stress as I can. He can certainly take it, and would probably wake up first anyway. That manticore is a hell of a tough form."

Jinx nodded agreement. For several minutes after, they concentrated on solidifying the energy pouring into the web.

In the Moonbase, Hal Jordan was shaking his head in awe. "I'm gonna have to re-tool my lantern after this. They're making me feel like a rank amateur."

"I understand, friend." J'onn's eyes were glued to several readouts. The power levels in the web were staggering his imagination, and he was only able to gauge what was in the immediate vicinity of the Moon. "What I  _do not_  understand is how they are able to handle energies of such magnitude. They should be fried to subatomic particles just from the leakage!"

"Hey, you said that this K'Naa being had changed them and they aren't exactly human anymore."

"Yes, well, 'not exactly human' is not a sufficient explanation for the ability to physically manipulate several hundred quadrillion joules of high-grade energy."

Hal trotted over and looked at J'onn's monitors. Eyes round, he whispered, "Great day in the morning."

"Indeed."

One of the devices Hal had set up started buzzing and he ran back over to it. "They're creating the field! Damn, look at that thing!"

"They are doing it. Until this moment I did not really believe they could." Stepping back, he looked out the nearest viewport, entranced by the sight. The bubble of soul-self had grown to include Gar's habitat, and was radiating in every band of the electromagnetic spectrum. The lines of the web, at first so delicate, had swelled to the width of bridge girders and pulsed with untold power. And in the center of things a complex geometric matrix was growing, livid and purple, reaching up and out, pointed about twenty degrees or so to the right of the sun. J'onn knew they were aiming at K'Naa's planet, and hoped that his instruments would accurately record the vector.

With a final, ground-shaking rush, the power in the web flowed into the violet matrix. There was a slight, almost instantaneous contraction, and then the entire tableau vanished.

Hal and J'onn were thrown to the floor, and most of the circuits in their equipment began spitting sparks enthusiastically.

####

…  _the Rift …_

The first thing that registered on Jinx's senses was the smell of smoke.

Had she been unconscious? Hard to say. One doesn't remember that, as a general rule. She rolled over and opened her eyes: the entrance to the giant geode lay several meters past her feet. Opening her mind, she felt around for Rachel …

####

…  _on Darkseid's world-ship …_

"Dread Lord, we have another signal."

The huge, rocklike being turned from his contemplation of the surface of this world and addressed the underling. "Where?"

"At the promontory, Dread Lord."

"How many?"

"Just one, Dread Lord."

"Send parademons. Collect it. Bring it here. Put it with the other one. And tell Desaad to prepare another rack." He didn't bother to listen for the technician's acknowledgement. He knew his word would be followed exactly, and he wanted to study the planet. His parademons had been busy, setting fires and creating various forms of mayhem. At first the fires would mysteriously go out. But then his troops had uncovered a chamber filled with thousands of preserved species – and one living female – and he knew, finally, that he had the right place.

He  _would_  have the secret of the warp, if he had to obliterate this troublesome planet to get it.

 


	30. Epicenter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (We'll make this one simple. I don't have SQUAT to do with the Titans. How's that? -Concolor)

_CHAPTER 30_

…  _the JLA Moonbase …_

Hal Jordan was made of stern stuff; that's what qualified him for membership in the Guardians' Lantern Corps. J'onn J'onzz was a Martian shape-shifter and probably the second-most-durable JLA member after Superman. Needless to say, they bounced right back up after the Moonquake engendered by the girls' departure. J'onn sped around the base, checking for leaks and plugging a couple of small ones. Hal worked on getting the equipment into un-fried condition. They had logged the incredible stream of data in real time into a heavily-shielded remote file, so he wasn't too worried about that. But right this instant they were basically blind, and that was a feeling he  _didn't_  like even a little. So, by the time J'onn rejoined him to help, he had already restored their first two layers of perimeter alarms and was well on his way to getting the rest of the communications apparatus ship-shape.

It surprised neither of them when the dedicated line to the Watchtower buzzed. After the light show they'd just seen, they figured every university, news outlet, and curious kid with a telescope on the planet would be calling to find out what happened, and they weren't far wrong. What  _did_  surprise them was that it was Dr. Fate on the other end. Hal raised a brow. "Hey, what's up, Doc?"

"Did they take him?"

"… Wait. Back up, there, boyo. A little context would be nice."

"Did Rachel Roth and Jennifer Wrangler take Gar Logan with them when they left the Moon?"

"… You mean Raven and Jinx?"

"Yes! Did they …"

"Okay, right, sure! Yeah, they did. But how do you …"

"Thank Deity."

"How'd you know they would?"

"That was the goal."

"Okay, now you're confusing me."

"He had to go with them."

"… How's that?"

"I must go. Thank you for your information." And the connection went dead.

 

####

…  _The Watchtower …_

Dr. Fate punched the button to disconnect, then slumped, leaning his fists against the console.

"Kent?"

His back stiffened.

Wonder Woman walked up behind him. "Kent, would you mind telling me what's going on?"

Turning slowly, and resting against the cool metal, the blue-and-gold figure crossed his arms for a moment, then shrugged and removed the helmet, shaking out long, dark hair. His features were oddly androgynous, a result of the amalgam of two souls, one male and one female that, when fused and empowered by the ancient spirit inhabiting the helmet, combined to form what was arguably the most powerful sorcerer of the age. Regarding the Amazon with a neutral expression, he finally said, "You're too damned intuitive for your own good."

Tapping her head with a finger, she replied, "Amazon? Daughter of Athena? Comes with the territory." She took a step closer. "I know you've been seriously exercised over the Transition Event and everything that resulted from it. And yet, when invited to join us for the girls' debriefing, you declined. That made no sense to me at the time, and doesn't now. Add that to what you just told Hal, and … perhaps you can understand why I'm curious."

He stared at a point past her head for a bit, and then sighed. "I suppose if anyone on the team can keep a secret, you can."

"That may be true. But you'll have to convince me why it should  _remain_  a secret, first."

"Because precognition is, at best, an inexact art."

"… You're trying to see the future?"

"No. Not trying. Having it thrust upon me." He stood and walked toward the door, motioning for her to follow. They entered the main hall, whereupon Dr. Fate made a quick sigil in the air. It glowed briefly and faded. "Now no one else can hear us."

"And I'm listening."

"I received a vision."

"So I gathered."

"It involved Darkseid."

A sudden chill ran up her back. "Shit."

"Why, Diana!" he smirked. "I didn't know you …"

"Stuff it. What  _ **about**_  Darkseid? And why didn't you tell Clark?"

"He didn't need to be involved. He's got  _ **way**_  too much personal history with Darkseid, would have popped off to Apokolips for a confrontation - that he would have lost, by the way - and the situation was ticklish enough already."

"But why keep it all to yourself?"

"Because so little was certain at the time. Visions, of necessity, are based on that which  _may_  be, not that which  _shall_  be. The Heisenberg principle applies."

"Uh-huh. The more you try to interact with the prophecy, the less accurate it becomes."

"Exactly."

"… And that's why you avoided meeting the girls?"

"Correct … although I did have to manipulate them to a degree."

"In what way?"

"I sent Raven dreams."

"… Dreams."

"Yes. I convinced her that they needed to take Garfield Logan with them."

"Huh." She regarded him narrowly. "What was the vision?"

"So direct! My, my."

"You're going to tell me. You know it. I know it. You may as well get it over with."

A humorless chuckle acknowledged the truth of that statement. "There was a series of visions, four all told. Each built upon the last. I didn't know at first who or what was involved, apart from Darkseid, but I knew it represented a threat to the universe at large. I saw that the League would decide to make the trip to the Rift to find this …  _being_. I did not understand why I could never see anything, just … landscape. But after listening to the recording of the interview, it all became clear. I was seeing  _her_  … but I didn't recognize her for what she was."

"You are referring to K'Naa."

"Yes. She is vast, Diana, not just physically, and ancient. The oldest sentient thing in existence, by a few orders of magnitude, at least in this plane."

"How does Darkseid fit in?"

"He knew of the Transition Events. Many people, of many races have uncovered this pattern over the last half-million years, but no one ever knew the source before, or why it was being done. Now we do." His gaze intensified. "And Darkseid managed to track down, approximately, the origin point, just as we did."

The chill came back, redoubled. "Are you saying that Darkseid is looking for K'Naa, too?"

He nodded.

"That would be bad."

A quick bark of a laugh indicated his agreement. "Your capacity for understatement is formidable. He seeks the secret of the warp anomaly."

"… Because if he got that, he could just show up anywhere in the galaxy, and pick off a planet before any sort of response could be mustered!"

"Yes. I am sure that is his primary motivation. But that is not the biggest danger."

"… No? Then what?"

"You saw the web the girls generated."

"Yes. I didn't really understand it. Why was all that necessary to generate the warp?"

"It wasn't, not for that purpose. The web was a collector."

She frowned, not comprehending.

"To create a warp of that magnitude, to transport mass instantly across thirteen thousand parsecs, takes a  _ **monstrous**_  amount of energy. They could not generate that energy on their own. They had to collect it."

"… Ohhhhh! So they collected … solar energy?"

"Yes. Quite a  _lot_  of solar energy. They were absorbing over a quarter of the sun's output."

" _ **What?"**_

"Yes. That web, that mental construct, absorbed and held well over two hundred and fifty billion-billion-billion joules of pure energy."

She leaned against the wall for support, whispering, "By Hera!"

"Ah, you understand the problem. It isn't so much the warp …"

"It's the energy collector! If he got his slimy hands on  _ **that**_  …"

"He would not hesitate to use it to obliterate anything in his way."

Her eyes wide, she said, "We have to alert the League! Kent, I can't imagine why …"

"No! We must not. The visions were very clear on that point. If the League were to become involved, all would be lost."

"But  _ **how?"**_

"That is why Gar Logan had to go with them." He looked away, his gaze distant. "He is the key."

" _Beast Boy?_  But that makes no sense! He's not even an A-Lister, he's … he's the weakest member of the Titans ... well, ordinarily. But he's got no chance in _ **hell**_  against Darkseid!"

"Then perhaps you don't know as much about that young man as you think you do."

 

####

…  _on Darkseid's world-ship …_

Pain.

So much pain.

Loss and sadness and darkness and despair and waves and sheets and spikes and pillars and explosions of raw, racking, gnawing, hideous pain.

They were destroying her.

Connected to the planet as she was, the avatar currently lying, bruised and bloody on the floor of her cell, could feel every lick of flame, every dying bush or tree, every strangling brook or poisoned pond.

She could not think, could not grasp any hint of her surroundings. The tortures this body had been through at Desaad's hands were  _nothing_ , not even a tiny  _consideration_ , compared with what they were doing to her on the planet.

And they didn't even know. Ignorant, evil, clueless bastards.

She had long passed the point where she had any control over her movements, merely lying there, quivering in exquisite, unending, unyielding pain.

Hope was gone, if it had ever existed. Her mind, her world, her universe … was pain.

 

####

…  _on K'Naa…_

The flight of parademons landed in a precise grouping in front of the entrance to the cavern of the Crystal. These creatures, though armed with some of the best battle-tech Apokolips had to offer, were not all that bright. They did, however, follow orders quite well. Followed them exactly to the letter most of the time. But they weren't  _supposed_  to think for themselves, and so anything  _like_  individual initiative had been pounded out of them long since. Their world was one of absolutes. Obey Darkseid. Kill what he told them to kill. Fight when he told them to fight. Never ask questions. Consider all other beings as the enemy unless told otherwise. They were here to collect the sentient being that the instruments detected, and they would do so or die trying.

The one in charge trotted up into the cave mouth, his squad just behind him, and came immediately upon their target, who feebly resisted. Their prey was quickly immobilized, soon wrapped up in a strong synthetic cable and attached to a force-bubble generator. Then they re-formed their unit and shot back into the sky, headed for the gargantuan craft that hung over this world like a misshapen, cancerous moon.

 

####

Jinx had no trouble locating her unconscious lover, who was sprawled in an uncomfortable-looking pile on the sharp corners of the geode's floor. (Rachel had explained to her that this could in no way be an actual geode, since those are formed by water over immense spans of time and couldn't possibly get this big, but to Jinx if it walked like a geode and quacked like a geode …) Using a bit of hex energy, she gathered the smaller girl to her and sought out the narrow passage that led down to K'Naa's Hall of Memory. They were shortly hidden out in the bewildering array of preserved creatures, lying flat and invisible to anyone who might be looking for them … say, a nearly-invulnerable, psychopathic shape-shifter.

Rachel seemed to be profoundly unconscious, and Jinx had no idea when she might come around, but she knew things on the planet had gone south in a major way. Even way down here, in the bowels of the mountain, she could smell the sickly char of burning trees. She didn't know what that meant for K'Naa, but it couldn't be good.

Turning her attention back to her companion, Jinx started trying to establish contact …

 

####

…  _on Darkseid's ship …_

Desaad's credulity was being severely strained. "What the hell is  _this_  thing?"

The parademons stared at him stupidly. "We get. We bring."

"I can see that, imbecile! What is it?"

"… Uhhhh …"

He tried a different tack. "The Dread Lord told me to prepare another rack for another sentient being. This thing is  _twice_  as big as the fucking  _rack_ , and doesn't look even  _vaguely_  sentient! Why have you brought it here?"

"… Told to. Master said."

"Rrrghhhh!" He threw his hands up and turned away. "Why do I even bother? Put it in a cell! Get it out of my sight!"

The parademons did just that, dragging the securely-bound and still severely disoriented being a few levels down, and tossing him into a holding cell. They locked the door and left, and Gar Logan was, essentially, completely forgotten. Certainly he was ignored.

That state of affairs, however, would be changing very soon.

 

####

In an auxiliary monitor room, two technicians were arguing.

"He would want to know this!" she insisted.

"And I say if you disturb him now, he will be angry," he countered. "I have seen that look on his face before; he is being frustrated by circumstances because something is not going his way. Then, if what you claim turns out to be just a glitch, he will give you to Desaad."

That prospect was not to be contemplated. "But if it is  _not_  a glitch, and there  _was_  another psionic wave, and it  _was_  as massive as the detector says, and we do  _not_  tell him, what then?"

"You should recalibrate. Then, if you are still sure, tell Desaad himself. Let  _him_  make the decision."

"I will do that." She shook a finger at him. "But there is nothing wrong with my equipment."

"You can _not_  be sure. Aliya, you know something  _always_  breaks or malfunctions when we go through a boom tube."

"Pessimist." She stalked off back to her station and began setting up the calibration protocols.

 

####

_What is this feeling?_

Iron-hard muscles bunched and rolled under dark green scales that would shrug off an anti-tank round.

_I have felt this before._

Something was keeping his wings from moving. He flexed them harder, and the cords snapped. Struggling to his feet, he shook his massive head.

 _I am …_ _**hungry** _ _… yes, hungry._

He blinked deliberately a few times and took in his surroundings. The cell he was in was too small to allow him to stretch his wings as he would have liked. He wanted out, and examined the walls more closely.

_That … that is a door._

He padded up to it, placed a paw against it, and pushed. With a high-pitched, grating screech, it bent, buckled, and popped loose from its moorings.

_I have not been hungry in a long time._

Flowing out into the corridor, he caught a scent: flesh, warm and living and close by. A grin that should terrify any creature with a functioning brain stem took over his face.

_How delightful. Time to go hunting._

 

####

…  _on K'Naa…_

Raven dragged herself up out of her torpor by sheer force of will.  _Damnation! So hungry._  Forcing her eyes open brought her a fuzzy picture of Jinx's face, heavy with concern. "Jinx?"

"Oh, thank God!"

"Where is Gar?"

"I don't know," she answered, looking around nervously. "Are you okay?"

"I think so." She sat up, yawned and stretched, stretched again for good measure, then stiffened and said, "What's that smell?"

"I think there's a forest fire or something outside."

"A  _ **fire?**_   But … but the only thing that can burn here is  _K'Naa!"_

"I know, I know! And we need to put it out! But I wasn't going to just  _ **leave**_  you here, alone and asleep, not knowing where Mister Monster was." She handed Rachel several bright red fruits. "Here, eat these. I brought all I could find close by."

The empath wolfed them down, and soon felt much better. "Okay. Come on." They held hands and teleported straight up about half a klick.

As one, their mouths dropped open. The ground around the promontory was burnt black, the rocky substrate showing through in many places. Pillars of smoke stretched into the sky here and there all the way to the horizon. In every direction they could see scores of tiny groups of figures flying around. Quick, bright sparks would leap down, and new fires would grow.

A towering, blinding rage built within their shared consciousness. Jinx didn't have to look to know that her lover now sported four glowing, red eyes. Had she been able, she would have herself. Hex energy and soul-self sprang outward, combining instantly into the tool they would need.

With no hesitation, they fell like the Hammer of God on the nearest group.

 

####

…  _on Darkseid's ship …_

Aliya couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice. "Tren! Come look! It's doing it again!"

Her fellow-monitor stepped over and watched the readouts, his eyes growing round. "Is that number correct?"

"I … um … well, damn." The psi-levels showing on her detector were  _ **well**_  beyond anything explicable. "Damn it, Tren, I guess you're right. That  _ **has**_  to be a glitch."

" _Now_  aren't you glad you kept quiet?"

"Yes." She turned grateful eyes on him. "Thank you." Then she grumbled, "Stupid boom tubes."

"I'll go get you another calibration unit. That one must be defective."

 

####

Darkseid had a private room off the main bridge where he could retire to think, but still keep a finger on the pulse of the great ship. There were readouts and telltales for many of the critical operations, and he would glance around at them periodically to make sure everything was on the green and going as planned. Some of them were direct-line sensors, such as those from Engineering and Guidance; some were connected to the monitor boards of his bridge crew, so that if they had an emergency they could hit a button and let him know instantly. And usually that system worked perfectly.

Usually.

Each set of parademon armor had a sensor that determined its current effectiveness. If one of the systems failed - the flight unit, for example - that information was duly recorded in a small "black box" that sent a report back to the ship roughly every three minutes. The shock troops were divided up into myriads and legions, and each myriad had its own station on the control panel. Since there was no way that any one technician or even a large group of them could track the individuals in such a vast force, the readouts would show comparative troop strength as a percentage of viable soldiers in each myriad. By an easy manipulation of the board, the technician could then choose a myriad and call up details for each legion. In large, pitched battles, those numbers could vary quite a bit. Darkseid had no qualms about sacrificing significant fractions of his force to achieve his aims; that's why he made the parademons so stupid. They'd walk straight into Hell itself if he told them to … and  _had_  on two occasions.

So the monitor may be forgiven a somewhat lax attitude in this case. There was no resistance on this planet. Hell, there were no  _animals_ , much less a sentient native race, so the parademons were just flying around and setting things on fire. A wonderful time was being had by all. His monitor bank read out in a boring array of "100%" notes, and he was sitting back in his chair with his eyes closed.

It was only when one of his fellow technicians walked past and happened to bump into him that he jerked upright, sending a glare at the retreating back. Glancing over at the monitor board, he saw the rank of red numbers … and then did an almost comical double-take. A third of the readouts clearly showed "0" and the numbers on the rest were falling precipitously.

 _This can't be right! This_ _**has** _ _to be a communications fuck-up!_

"Hey, Rand! Get over here!"

Another head popped up about a quarter of the way around the huge control room. "Whaddaya want, Bage?"

"You're over the suit boxes, right?"

"My team installs 'em. So what?"

"They're all goin' bat-shit, that's what!"

"What,  _all of 'em?_  Can't be." He got up and trotted around to the station. His jaw dropped when he got a look at the board. "What the  _ **hell?"**_

"Yeah, see what I mean? They aren't  _fighting_  anything down there. There's no  _enemy_. But the board thinks they're dropping like  _sriili_  off a cliff, and there's nothing I can do to convince it otherwise."

"… You  _dead sure_  they're all okay?"

"How could they be anything  _but?_  There's no natives! Just trees and bushes and shit! And if another ship showed up, we'd know it, right?"

"Well … yeah. I guess. But, damn, how can they all be …"

The technician to their right said, "Maybe it's just a transmission glitch. Maybe because of that star? Or all the dust?"

"Eh. Maybe. I'll run another diagnostic and see if …"

Rand said, "Might wanna buzz the Boss."

"Oh,  _hell_ , no! Over an  _equipment glitch?_  He'd make me eat my kidneys!"

"Yeah? When's the last time you  _had_  an equipment glitch?"

Bage had to think about that one. "Been a while. But we used the  _hell_  outta the boom tubes just t' get here, and you know what that does to electronics."

"Henh. Just sayin'." He waved a hand and went back to his station. "Do your diagnostic. But I'm tellin' ya, there ain't  _one damn thing_  wrong with my black boxes."

 

####

…  _on K'Naa…_

The parademons' armor was a highly sophisticated combination of high-strength composite alloys and ultra-high-tech electronics, allowing them to fly and giving them awe-inspiring firepower. Its physical construction made it proof against small-arms projectiles and shrapnel, and the superconducting nature of the surface material would defeat most portable energy weapons.

It did them about as much good versus the Jinx/Raven fusion as an equal mass of wet tissue paper.

The soul-self/hex energy construct held a number of unique properties. They were able to direct it at will, within line of sight, at any target. It could be made to produce a localized hyper-gravity field along its length. It would suck in and disrupt any matter that came in contact with it, creating lines of cleavage through whatever it happened to touch and converting the tiny amount of matter consumed into pure energy. So not only was the target split, it was subsequently blown violently apart.

In the center of a field of blinding radiance, the girls popped from one group to the next. The scintillating tendrils would lash out, and pieces of cauterized parademon would fall to the ground. Then they would locate the next group.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Darkseid had close to half a million parademons at his command, and he'd brought about a third of them with him, some fifteen myriads. This strike force of heavy shock troops had overwhelmed  _hundreds_  of planets, their sheer numbers giving them the advantage over the best defense systems in the galaxy. There were twelve myriads of them on K'Naa now, wreaking havoc and destruction with glee and fierce abandon.

It took the girls less than eight minutes to obliterate them all.

 

####

…  _on Darkseid's ship …_

Garfield Logan had gotten very used to this form. He grew from liking it, to loving it, to considering it indispensable in a very short period of time.

For one thing, it came equipped with supernaturally acute senses, and a couple that most mortal beasts didn't have. Vision extended well into the infrared spectrum, and if he concentrated he could pick up thought. Oh, not to the point of its being anything like mind-reading, but he could tell if anyone got within about three or four hundred meters of him. They would glow in his mind as a pale yellow spot, and the more agitated they got, the more golden the glow became.

It made the hunting  _fun_.

This ship was positively  _crawling_  with enemies. He'd deduced his location (that is, on board a starship) after one quick look out a viewport, and figured that Raven had just handed him off to some passing slavers. Everyone he met attacked him … and then died. Their blood tasted different. Not bad, for sure, and it actually pepped him up a little, but it definitely wasn't human.

Then he picked up one  _very_  strong mental signature that drew him upward through the decks. He only knew of one such mind that strong, and figured she was still on the ship … probably negotiating a price for him with the slavers. A deep growl issued that reverberated down the corridor. At the far end a door opened and someone looked out, screaming and slamming it shut at the sight of the manticore. With a grin, Gar padded down to the door. Maybe this one would have another of those energy weapons. He hoped so. An additional perk of this form seemed to be that it would absorb high-grade energy. Many of the enemies carried as standard issue a pulsed-laser side arm for offense, but instead of burning a hole in him, it simply recharged his batteries. Plus, it tickled, which he liked. He knocked the door down.

Disappointingly, though, this one had a projectile weapon. Gar didn't waste any time dispatching the creature. Afterward, he looked around for an elevator. He'd have to get to her before she left the ship, and he might not have very much time.

One of the places he happened to pass through in his search was simply  _crowded_  with enemies. He had himself a grand old time slaughtering them, and made quite a mess of the room's computer banks in the process. Plus, against a wall there were a couple of large conduits that got slashed open as well, and were spilling some kind of foul-smelling liquid into the room. He hot-footed it out of there, nose wrinkling. As he shouldered his way through the slightly-too-small-for-him door, he dislodged the sign over it. The rectangle of metal fell onto his broad back and then clattered to the floor, where a hind foot stepped on it, crushing the words

 

  
_TARGETING AND  
FIRE CONTROL #2_.

####

…  _on K'Naa…_

Rachel and Jinx held hands, floating half a kilometer above the great crystal. They were both sweating, but not from exertion. It was the cold sweat of fear. Fear for their dearly-loved friend, K'Naa, the gentlest soul they'd ever known, who had a love bigger than a planet and only wanted to share.

They couldn't find her, or at least not her conscious mind. There was too much pain.

Rachel opened her eyes. "Jinx?"

"… Mmph."

"Jinx, please. Look at me."

There were tears in the fuchsia eyes. "Rae, I'm scared."

"I know. Me, too." She bit her lip. "Jinx, we'll have to heal her."

Her brow furrowed, and then Jinx nodded. "Yeah. So much to fix."

"If only we had known …"

"No, Rae, don't. We  _couldn't_  know. Nobody had come by in twenty million years. We had no way to know that the first one to  _find_  her would try to  _kill_  her."

Rachel looked up. The ragged outline of the starship was visible if one knew where to look. She had felt the mass of minds shortly after they cleared the planet of vandals, and was still studying on what to do about it.

Jinx followed her gaze, her face taking on a hard cast. She muttered, "Bastards."

"Yeah. But we can't worry about them right now. We have to heal K'Naa."

"Right." She closed her eyes again and the hex energy sprang forth …

 

####

…  _on Darkseid's ship …_

Aliya cursed in frustration. "There it goes  _again!"_

Tren came over and looked at her equipment. "Now that's really odd. Didn't you  _just_  get it recalibrated?"

"Yes, damn it! I don't know what could be wrong!"

Studying the readouts, Tren gave his head a worried shake. "What if they  _aren't_  wrong?"

"Huh?"

"What if … I know this sounds crazy, but what if there was something on the planet … say, something that was, I don't know,  _hibernating_ , way down in the inside, and we woke it up?"

Aliya didn't like the sound of that. "Can you get a real-time view of the planet from here?"

"Yeah, I think so. You got a locus for that reading?"

"It's right on top of that big crystal mountain."

"Okay … hang on … let me …" He gasped, his heart rate doubling. "Holy  _shit!"_

"What?"

He didn't bother answering. He just ran over and hit the panic button.

 

####

Up on the bridge, all heads turned to the bright-blue strobe when the klaxon sounded. A few seconds later, Darkseid emerged from his room and demanded to know what was wrong.

It was a frantic couple of minutes that followed while the technicians (who realized with mounting horror that there was, in fact,  _nothing_  wrong with their equipment) apprised the ruler of Apokolips of the current state of affairs. Roaring in impotent fury, he demanded to see what was happening, and shortly they were all gazing in confusion at a scene none of them could quite grasp.

 

####

Garfield Logan tensed when the klaxon went off.  _They must know I've escaped. Raven will be trying to get off the ship now. Hurry, hurry, hurry!_  He ripped a hole in the roof of the elevator and shot up the shaft, his claws puncturing and gripping the super-alloy walls, following the bright star in his mind.

 

####

…  _on K'Naa…_

The girls hovered, foreheads touching, arms wrapped around each other, a kilometer above the surface of the ravaged planet. The brilliant white fusion field already extended nearly to the horizon in every direction, and was growing rapidly.

 

_Remember how she said you'd be able to affect events even on other planets?_

_Yeah. I wondered about that._

_So covering_ _this_ _planet should be a piece of cake, right?_

_Heh. Yeah. What are the odds, eh?_

_I love it when you say that._

_She's never been hurt before, so she wouldn't know, would she?_

_Wouldn't know what?_

_What are the odds that K'Naa has such a marvelously efficient regeneration system that all her wounds will heal in just minutes?_

_Hey, I like those odds! I think the probability is pretty good._

_We might want to bump that along a little, though._

_What do you mean?_

_She's a big planet. It'll take a lot of power for her to heal. Let's deploy the web._

_Ooo, good idea!_

And they did. It sprang outward, reaching a million kilometers across in seconds …

 

####

…  _on Darkseid's ship …_

The tyrant ground his teeth in ultimate frustration as he watched something whiz by his ship that looked to him  _exactly_  like the work of a planet-sized orb-weaver. "What … is …  _ **that?"**_

Desaad had joined him on the bridge. The Chief Inquisitor, sweating profusely, was stumped for an answer. "Dread Lord, it may be an attempt to trap us. We should move away …"

" _ **NO!**_ _ **"**_ he roared, backhanding Desaad all the way across the bridge to smash into a wall. He lay on the floor where he dropped and didn't move. "We do  _ **NOT**_  run. We  _ **conquer!**_ " Turning to the weapons board, he gritted out, "Train every particle gun, plasma cannon, and laser you have on those two and blow them out of existence.  _ **NOW!"**_

They hurried to comply.

 

####

_She is close!_  Gar sped along a broad corridor, the biggest he had seen yet, straight at the source of the glowing beacon that burned in his mind like a psychic nova. The occasional figure that happened to be in his path was either crushed or ignored, just like the weapons they would sometimes train on him. His focus was absolute.  _Close! Must kill her quickly!_

 

####

With the web at five million klicks across, the girls tuned it to full acceptance mode and basked in the solar glory that ran like the freshest of waters down the virtual strands. A quarter-hour of this, and they both agreed that probability would  _have_  to bend to their wills. They focused on concentrating the power …

 

####

"Dread Lord, there's a problem with the targeting computers! (Yes, the 'problem' was named Garfield Logan, but they didn't know that.)

"Do not tell me of problems! Fire the weapons!"

"But, Dread Lord …"

" _ **FIRE**_  the never-sufficiently-damned  _ **WEAPONS!**_   You'll hit  _ **SOMETHING!**_ "

And so they did.

One of the particle beams placed near the bottom of the ship was aimed exactly ninety degrees away from where they thought it was. It blew a long, shallow, gaping gash along the craft's underside, and sucked half a legion of parademons into space. The rest of the weapons fired in more or less random directions, but most of them did hit the web at some point. And that, as the old saying goes, is where they broke the molasses jug.

The ravening energies, which had extinguished interstellar fleets, subdued entire worlds, and brought terror and death to hundreds of millions … did no damage whatsoever. The web, true to its name, glommed onto them and sucked the power through them. The particle beams, especially, served as very convenient conduits. The web began to draw directly from the ship's engines, which immediately ceased supplying power to the drives.

It took the bridge fire-control team several seconds to realize what was going on. In the meantime, the blast through the underbelly of the ship had gotten quite a grip on everyone else's attention. Some minute-and-a-half later, when Darkseid understood what had happened, he rounded on the fire-control bank. "You imbeciles!"

"But Dread Lord, we  _said_  there was a problem with …"

The ship shuddered, knocking most of them off their feet. Given the size of the thing, they all knew that if something had hit them, it must have been either very massive or very speedy or both. They stared at each other in fear.

What had  _actually_  happened was that one of Darkseid's planetary siege weapons, a very powerful bomb, had detonated as an after-effect of the misfired particle beam and blown a hole nearly a kilometer across on the underside. The world-ship, now crippled, leaking atmosphere, and losing power rapidly, was falling out of orbit.

And while all this was going on, the ship's weapon bank was charging the web that was returning life to the planet.

 

####

…  _on K'Naa …_

Like a soothing blanket, the probability-altering field spread over K'Naa. The trees regained their bark and leaves. The bushes grew back, lush and full, fruit flourishing on their branches. The streams ran clear and pure. All the toxins and evil combustion products underwent a radical re-arrangement into beneficial substances.

About fourteen minutes into the process, Rachel got a tickle in her mind. Eyes wide, she got Jinx's attention. Together, they said, "K'Naa?"

 

_**Hiiiiyeee!** _

Rachel's brows drew together. "Um … Hi? Are you okay?"

 

_**Oooooo, pretty!** _

Jinx caught her eye. "I don't think she's exactly okay."

"Hmph. Maybe not." She took a second to collect herself. "K'Naa, is your avatar around here? Or did the bad men take it?"

 

_**Ooooo, took it away! Went fly fly fly up in the sky!** _

Jinx looked uncertain. "Guess that answers that. But what do we do about it?"

"We go get her, that's what."

That brought a curt nod. "Cool. Can you sense her?"

"Not inside that ship's defensive field, with all those other people up there. Too much interference."

"Let's get closer, then."

They pulled the web in, storing what energy they  _hadn't_  used in its virtual matrix, which made the pair of them glow brightly. Rachel surrounded them in a bubble of soul-self and they shot upward toward the ship at Mach 20.

 

####

…  _on Darkseid's ship …_

Pandemonium reigned. The ship's drives were no longer losing energy, but that was because, when the web vanished, the power backlash and sudden interruption had overloaded all the particle guns, which promptly blew up. Now there were  _nine_  large holes in the near side of the world-ship instead of one. The main lights on the bridge were out (lights were out all over the ship) and the dim, red emergency backup lights provided the sole illumination.

While the drive crews tried gamely to get the ship righted and away from the planet, Darkseid stormed around the bridge in uncontrolled passion. As he was passing the door to the corridor that led back into the ship, something smashed into it and blasted it off its tracks. The massive door collided with him, knocking him down and pinning him to the deck, and the interloper landed on top.

In a voice that positively crowed, Gar yelled, "Hi, Honey, I'm home!"

Then twin beams of yellow fury lanced up through the door and punched a hole in his left wing. He screamed in pain and rage and clawed at the door, heaving it off to the side in one swipe and uncovering his …

"Hey!  _You're_ not Raven!"

" **You** _ **dare?**_ _ **"**_  Darkseid roared and sprang at the creature, which nimbly sidestepped him, moving with hellish speed, especially for something so large. Also (not that either of them had opportunity to notice) the hole in the wing promptly closed up and healed.  **"You** _ **dare**_ **to touch the Lord of** _ **Apokolips?"**_

"Yeah. Get used to it." He paced and skipped, left and right, left and right, in front of the enraged being. "You're the bright mind, though. I followed your spark up here." He dodged a computer console that the rock-like Apokoliptian had ripped out of the floor and thrown at him. "Who are you, anyway? And what am I doing on your ship?"

" _ **DIIIIE!"**_  Darkseid, in his extremity, focused all his frustration and rage on this beast-thing that had somehow appeared on his bridge. Grabbing anything he could get his hands on, he blasted the manticore with piece after piece of heavy equipment. The ones that didn't miss just bounced off, and now Gar was circling him.

"You're just like  _them_ , though, aren't you? Just like the low-life scum I exterminated on Earth. I can feel it in your mind. Evil and rotten to the core."

Screaming, Darkseid rushed him …

 

####

There being any number of convenient holes in the ship's hull, Rachel and Jinx had no trouble gaining entrance. Breathable atmosphere was another issue. They had to phase through several bulkheads before finding a room without leaks. But by then Rachel was picking up K'Naa's signature. They altered course a few degrees and pressed on into the bowels of the monstrous ship, arriving shortly in the brig section. They found K'Naa's avatar, bleeding sluggishly and barely alive, sleeping the sleep of exhaustion. Jinx cradled her head, crying freely; Rachel began healing her many wounds.

 

####

… and the Tyrant of Apokolips got a stinger in the gut for his trouble. He doubled over in agony, and almost immediately lapsed into seizures.

Gar paced around behind him. He didn't want another round with that yellow beam; that had  _hurt!_  "So, you never told me your name." There was no one else around to ask, as the crew had decided, right after his arrival, that being elsewhere was a good thing.

Darkseid groaned deep in his chest, but said nothing. Gar placed a paw on his head and pressed down hard, surprised at the resistance.  _Damn! This guy is tough! Fine, then, we'll do this the easy way._ He stepped back, aimed the stinger at the base of his neck …

… and caught a mental whiff of Raven.

That jerked his head around; this time he was certain. The flavor was definitely her.  _So she_ _ **is**_ _here! Hot damn!_  He trotted back and forth a few times, nose up, and closed his eyes, trying to gauge direction.  _Yeah. Down that way. Cool. This guy will keep. I better get after her before …_  But then his world dissolved in mind-numbing pain.

Darkseid had carefully turned over and unleashed another bolt from his eyes, directly at and through Gar's belly. The manticore, in a hideous spasm, flopped over behind a rank of computers. Darkseid heard something smack the floor several times, and then … silence.

He didn't get up. He couldn't, at least not yet. Supreme though his Apokoliptian physique might be, that one dose of poison nearly killed him outright. If it weren't for his connection to The Source, it surely would have. As it was, he had no strength and hardly enough will to stay awake. His inward parts burned and throbbed like nothing he had ever before experienced. Even now, inconceivable though it was to him, the poison was fighting off his attempts to neutralize it. As lucidity fled, he wished, with a tiny portion of his mind, to know how to make it. It … could be … very … useful …

 

####

"She needs rest," Rachel whispered, as she smoothed K'Naa's hair away from her face. "Lots and lots of rest."

"I know. Can we take her down to the planet now, you think?"

"I think so. It should be safe enough."

"Before we do, though …"

Rachel cocked an eye at her. "Yeah?"

Jinx's grin stretched out into its old Cheshire-cat mold. "What are the odds?"

"Huh?"

"Well … okay, you think these bastards might have company somewhere?"

"Probably. This ship is evidence of an extremely advanced culture, technically, at least. Those don't develop in a vacuum. Probably part of an empire."

"You think they've communicated with 'em?"

"I have no clue. Why?"

"Just sayin'. I'd like to keep that from happening, wouldn't you? Keep K'Naa's location secret a while longer?" She tapped a finger against her chin as her hex energy flowed out of her and into the walls of the ship. "What are the odds that this scrap heap just happens to kick into gear and head in the direction of K'Naa's sun?"

"Ahhh! I see." Rachel added her power to Jinx's. "What, indeed?"

"I mean, it could happen, right? And likely, too, considering how much damage this thing has taken."

"Very likely."

"And what are the odds that once the engines come on, they get stuck?"

"Again," answered Rachel with a sage smile, "I find that to be a highly probable occurrence."

"I thought you might." A subtle thrum could then be felt running through the great ship.

"Know what I think?"

"You think it's time to get the hell off this boat."

"You're absolutely right." And the three of them vanished.

 

####

"I'm tellin' ya, Bage, I saw him go down!"

"Like hell you did! You were running faster than me!"

The two technicians argued the whole time as they readied a shuttle for escape. They had felt the engines come to life, but a quick check of the ship's computer showed them that they had no reason to celebrate. They needed to get  _off_  this thing before it got too close to the local primary, or they'd be crispy critters. Even their fear of Darkseid was eclipsed by their fear of the star.

But the shuttle bay was damaged, and it took them almost two hours to get it cleared enough to launch. Nobody came by. Nobody called. They would hear an occasional distant thump or cry, and a few times felt unusual vibrations, but nothing more. And the ship accelerated. It was the most ominous two hours of their lives. They felt terribly, terribly alone.

"Hey, Rand … you sure this thing'll be fast enough?"

"They're built FTL. No speedster, but it'll get us the  _hell_  away from this place."

"I like that idea."

They scrounged as much of what they thought they'd need as they could find, stuffed it all into the shuttle, and closed the door. Neither of them noticed a tiny green fly that swooped in over their heads and found a safe spot behind a cabinet where it could rest. Because it  _ **really**_  needed some rest.

After launching, they got on the com and discovered that they weren't, after all, completely alone. Two other shuttles had apparently managed to duplicate their accomplishments. Rand flicked on the com and hailed them.

"Yes?" came back a hesitant female voice. "This is Shuttle 12."

"Aliya? That you?"

"Yes! Rand?"

"Yeah, I'm here with Bage. You got anybody?"

"Tren and Hillis from Detection, and Frayda and …" he heard her mumble, and a fainter mumble answered. "Eylona, right … Eylona from Drive Support."

Together they contacted the other shuttle, discovering that it contained three of the crew. Everyone present was a technician of some sort, and they tacitly patted themselves on the back for being the 'smart ones' on board. The three ships rendezvoused and took a course back in the direction of the galactic center.

Some five hours later, Darkseid's world-ship burned up while still a few million miles from K'Naa's primary. The star's unrelenting barrage of radiation had already cleansed the hulk of life a good hour earlier.

 


	31. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I've made this clear enough all along, but just to reiterate, I do not own the Titans. Happy? -Concolor)

…  _near K'Naa, ten months later …_

I'm alone on the bridge right now. I wanted to see it first by myself. By my reckoning, it's been three hundred and eight days since Jinx and Raven warped away from Earth, and now here we are on this sleek little number of a starship, blinking out of FTL in K'Naa's general vicinity. I started the subroutine for establishing orbit.

I'm the 'official' pilot. That just made lots of sense, seeing that I can hook my circuitry right into the ship's drive control, and fly it directly with my mind. Eh. It gave me something to do with the time. See, the way it turned out, I was the only member of the Titans who had elected to come along. Crime was starting to pick back up a bit. Terra and Robin felt like they were needed more in Jump City, and Starfire sure as  _hell_  wasn't going anywhere without her husband. But I was eyeball-deep in the scientific aspects of the Transition Event right from the start, and I'd be double dog  _damned_  before I missed a chance to actually  _meet_  K'Naa.

And so here we are, and the thought running around my head like a gnome with its ass on fire is,  _How are we going to contact them to let them know we're here?_

I shouldn't have worried. Raven just appeared – pop! – right there on the bridge. Scared me out of a year's growth.

She was buck naked, which gave me another shock, but then she grinned a little and a sparkly, black leotard appeared on her. Then she shot me a sober look. "You don't know how close you came to  _missing_  that chance, Victor."

_Ooookay. That was weird._  "What are you talking about?"

"Meeting K'Naa. You didn't want to miss the chance. But it was a narrow squeak for everyone."

It's unsettling to have someone pick up on your thoughts that easily. I didn't have time to comment on it, though. The rest of the ship's complement took that moment to make an appearance, trotting in quickly and filling the small bridge. Raven looked around at the group: Wonder Woman, J'onn J'onzz, and four more that I  _knew_  she didn't know, two men and two women.

Wonder Woman said, "Raven, I'd like you to meet some people who have become very good friends of ours. This is Jakob Strauss of the European Union, Marianne Heath of the United States, Yu Peng of China, and Cara Feliz of Brazil."

The four bowed to her in turn. Raven shook their hands, a slight smile growing on her face. "You aren't going back, are you?"

We all looked at each other in surprise, and Jakob and Cara shook their heads. She said, "We'd like to stay on, sort of as a cross between pioneer and ambassador. If that's all right with K'Naa."

A gentle wave of love sighed through the cabin, making some of them catch their balance. Eyes round, we all looked at Raven. Jakob stammered, "Wa-wa-was that … was that …"

"That was K'Naa, yes. She would be very pleased to have you stay. That  _was_  her goal, you know."

I touched her hesitantly on the arm. I had so many questions. But then she gave me a big smile and pulled me into a hug and said, "Jinx is going to be very happy to see you. She talks about you a good bit, you know."

I had to swallow twice before I could speak in any language besides Cough. "Really? She does?"

"Mm-hmm." She let me go and took a short step back, so she could face all of us. She bowed formally and intoned, "K'Naa sends her greeting to all who come in peace. Welcome, travelers, and rest."

Then we were all standing on a flat area of rock in front of a cave mouth. Several of us gasped, but Raven managed to get us calmed down. We took a minute or so to just look around at the pristine, floral paradise that spread out in all directions.

I finally got my thoughts collected enough to ask, "What was it you meant when you said we almost didn't get the chance to meet her?"

Wonder Woman, I noticed, watched her closely while Raven answered. "When we got here, she was under attack."

That brought some more gasps. Cara said, "Attack? But who …"

"Darkseid." That was from Wonder Woman. I'm still not comfortable calling her 'Diana' even though she corrects me every time.

Raven cocked a curious eye over at her, and said, "Yes. Probably. At least it was a  _ship_  of Apokolips. I don't know if Darkseid himself was with them, but I did finally recognize the parademons, much, much later. We had a few brutal hours right after we got here, and didn't really have much time for analysis. And poor K'Naa … they almost killed her. She's still recovering, and will be for many years to come."

"But  _why?"_  Cara wanted to know. "With all that  _love!_   Who could ever … that doesn't … I can't …"

"We have no idea. We never found out the reason behind it. But we did put a stop to it."

"I can tell you the reason," said Wonder Woman.

Raven stepped over to stand in front of the Amazon, who was quite a bit taller than she. " _How_  do you know?"

"Dr. Fate told me."

Raven's jaw dropped a bit. " _Kent?_  How did he …"

"He got visions. He was the reason you felt it necessary to bring Beast Boy along. He said he sent you dreams."

My old teammate got an irritated look on her face for a second, but that soon turned into a settled resignation. "I guess I can't fault him for that. He's gotta be the most principled sorcerer I know, so he wouldn't have done it if he didn't think it was necessary." She looked back up at Wonder Woman. "So why  _was_  Darkseid here?"

"He knew about the Transition Events, and somehow tracked down their origin. He wanted the secret of the long-distance warp technology."

"But it  _isn't_  technology. It's all spiritual."

"We thought as much. You'd never be able to convince Darkseid of that, though. Everything is technology, as far as he's concerned." She mulled that for a second. "You know, Hal got a complete analysis of your jump. He's been trying to incorporate what he learned into his ring ever since, and getting nowhere."

I chuckled. " _Told_  him he shoulda come along."

"And  _you_  know," retorted Wonder Woman, "how stubborn he can be." She glanced around. "By the way, where  _is_  Changeling? You mentioned that you thought K'Naa could cure him. Did she?"

Sadly, the empath shook her head. "We … aren't precisely  _sure_  where he is. What we  _think_ , after we had  _time_  to think, was that he somehow got on board the starship and managed to create a lot of havoc. The ship  _did_  practically self-destruct, and from what I know of the tech they use on Apokolips, that sort of thing doesn't happen by accident. It had to have help – a  _lot_  of help – and Gar being on board is the most logical explanation."

"I see." The Amazon considered this information and nodded. "Yes, that is very likely what happened. You say the ship self-destructed?"

"That may be pressing the point. There were a lot of explosions, and the ship was crippled. Once we got K'Naa's avatar off it, we … sort of encouraged it to go dive into the sun."

I don't know about the rest of the group, but that floored me a little. "Excuse me? How – and why – did you do  _that?"_

"The 'why' is easy. That ship needed to die."

"But … but you said … you said  _Green Bean_  was on that ship!"

She moved away, showed us the back of her head and drew a long breath. "Yes. We think so."

I was having trouble with my vision. "And you tossed it into the  _sun?_ Just like _that?"_

Crossing her arms, still not looking at us, she slowly nodded.

"Damn, Raven!"

The face she then turned my way stopped me cold. I'd never seen her look so forlorn, not even when she thought she was going to go sacrifice herself to stop her father. I could barely hear her say, "I've run back over those events so many times, Victor … so  _many_  times. Through everything we did, what we were feeling at the time, what we felt we had to do to save K'Naa. I thought he was here, on this planet. I couldn't find him, couldn't feel him, but I had no way of knowing that he'd be on the ship. I still don't know why I couldn't feel him." She ran the back of one hand across her face under her eyes. "It's barely possible – Jinx says so, but I think she's only trying to make me feel better – that maybe he didn't come with us at all, that he ended up somewhere else. But I just don't know." She hugged herself and shivered.

I moved over to her and took her by the shoulders. "Okay, Rae, listen. If you didn't know, you didn't know. Sounds like you were under a hella stress. You didn't have time to think things through. Am I right?"

J'onn J'onzz moved up next to us. "Are you certain that none of the shuttles made it off the ship?"

She looked up at him quizzically. "Shuttles?"

"Yes. All of Apokolips's ships-of-the-line are equipped with shuttlecraft because they are too large to make planetfall. Did you not see any?"

An expression of wonderment spread on her face. "… We were too busy to look."

I could tell the gears in her head were spinning fast enough to overheat, and commented, "So maybe he got off on a shuttle? That'd be just like him."

"But … we haven't seen any other craft at all until you showed up! Wouldn't shuttles try to set down on the nearest planet?"

"Not after the clock-cleanin' it sounds like you handed 'em. If the shuttles had FTL capability, they'd high-tail it."

She stared off into the distance.  _We_  all stared at  _her_. Finally another of those gentle waves of love washed over us, and she gave us a watery smile. "Thanks, everybody. Maybe I didn't kill him after all."

I gave her a quick hug, which she returned gladly, and I said, "I know that's gotta be important to you. You don't have that killer instinct."

"Don't idealize our situation, Victor," she warned. "Killing is sometimes necessary. We'd already killed the parademons that were attacking K'Naa and …"

"Wait." J'onn held up a hand. "You …  _killed_  the parademons?"

"We did. Jinx and I. We had to.  _They_  were killing  _K'Naa_ , destroying her on the planet, setting her on fire. We learned later that she endured pain that would have killed  _thousands_  of ordinary people. We had to stop them. They deserved it and I don't regret it."

"No, you misunderstand. The  _fact_  of the killing does not bother me either, given what I know of them. Evil brutes that delight in others' pain. What I am confused about is … how. Were they very few in number?"

"There were around a hundred and twenty thousand of them on the surface when we got here. We took a count of the bodies … much later."

J'onn sputtered. "And you killed them  _all?"_

"Yes."

"Just like that?"

"Yes. It wasn't difficult. Took around ten minutes, if memory serves." She chuckled wryly. "We were, ah, very upset."

He stared at her, open-mouthed, for a moment and then turned to Wonder Woman. "You were right, Diana. K'Naa is in good hands. It will not be necessary for the League to help with any sort of guard duty."

The Amazon nodded, covering a slight smile.

Jinx took that opportunity to show up. She did that pink-streak thing again, so I didn't actually see her move, but there she was … and just as bare-assed as Raven was at first. She chattered, "Hey, you guys, you gonna stand around outside all day? K'Naa wants ta meet ya!"

I gave her a wide grin and said, "Y'all must not have a mall here, 'cause I  _know_  you can  _afford_  some clothes!"

She looked down at herself and said, "Oops!" Then she was surrounded by a pink mist for an instant, and when that faded she stood there in an exaggerated Playboy-Bunny outfit, complete with whiskers. "This better?"

I don't think anybody in the group  _didn't_  smile.

Raven pulled Pinky into an embrace and then looked at us. "She makes a good point. Would you all like to go in and meet her now?"

And so we did.

 

_**The End** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to take just a minute to explain what prompted me to write this story, and why it is framed and plotted the way it is.
> 
> I've been fond of yuri for a few years now (basically ever since I discovered it). My favorite pairings are:
> 
> [Teen Titans] Raven/Jinx (obviously), Raven/Starfire, Raven/Blackfire, and Terra/Jinx
> 
> [The Incredibles] Violet/Mirage (again, obviously)
> 
> [Harry Potter] Hermione/Luna, Hermione/Fleur, Hermione/Ginny
> 
> [Kim Possible] Kim/Shego
> 
> [X-Men] Kitty/Jubilee
> 
> [Percy Jackson and the Olympians] Annabeth/Clarisse
> 
> The thing about yuri is that it makes so much sense. I mean, come on! Why wouldn't anyone be attracted to a girl, as opposed to a guy? Girls are soft and smooth and they curve in all the right places and they don't pick their ears in public. They're simply nicer and better looking than guys. {That being said, I consider myself very lucky to be married to a woman who REALLY likes guys (specifically, me) and DOESN'T have any interest in girls. Yay, me.} But on to my point.
> 
> I've read a lot of yuri. I mean, A LOT of yuri. Not as much as my daughter, who seems to breathe the stuff (when she isn't reading Harry/Snape yaoi) but several hundred different stories, all the way through, and SEVERAL hundred more just to get the flavor before deciding that a taste was enough. There's a lot of that last category. More than I like to think about.
> 
> Anyway … while many of the stories were well written and contained compelling characters making their way through an interesting plot, it must be said that in most of these cases, when there was overt sex involved, it seemed to me to be … well … gratuitous. As in, either the story is about nothing BUT sex, or the sex was superfluous and could have been left out completely, and the story would not have suffered. In some cases that would have improved the story.
> 
> So when my Muse knocked me over the head and left Transition stuck to my brain, what she wanted me to accomplish was writing a yuri that included sex because it was necessary to the progression of the plot: an integral part of the story, one that couldn't be left out without detracting from the story significantly. At the same time, I wanted the sex that was presented to be as realistic as possible, as bound up in the emotion and meaning of the relationship as possible, and not come across as mechanical.
> 
> Not that the mechanics of lovemaking aren't important because, believe me, they are! I think (and here let me just snag a soapbox to stand on) that if everyone knew how to make love, that is, how to make his/her partner really, really, REALLY want for you to "do that some more, if you can", and at the same time consider whatever it is that his/her partner likes to be "nice work, if you can get it" … then I think a lot of the world's problems would dry up and disappear. Call me a cockeyed optimist if you want, but a relaxed and happy and sexually satisfied public is a much less violent public. Just sayin'.
> 
> Only you can be the judge of whether or not I succeeded in my goals. But believe me, I did try.
> 
> Concolor44
> 
> 28 October 2010


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